Water Mill at Kollen near Nuenen
A brick-and-timber watermill on a stream near Nuenen in Brabant, where Van Gogh lived with his parents — two of the old mills still stand.
Watermill at Kollen
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Water Mill at Kollen near Nuenen — at a glance
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
- Year
- 1884
- Movement
- Realism (Dutch period)
- Place
- The watermills near Nuenen, North Brabant, the Netherlands
- Viewpoint
- An old water corn-mill on a Brabant stream — the Opwetten and Collse mills survive, restored and working
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 45 × 58 cm
- Now at
- Various collections
Overview
In the spring and summer of 1884, while living with his parents at Nuenen in the province of North Brabant, Vincent van Gogh painted a group of pictures of the old watermills on the streams around the village. They show a low mill of dark brick and weatherboard beside its wheel and a broad, still millpond, with pollarded trees and figures on a plank bridge or the bank. They are oil on canvas, about 45 by 58 cm; examples are in private and museum collections.
Where was Water Mill at Kollen near Nuenen painted?
Scholarship Nuenen, near Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands, was where Van Gogh's father was a Protestant pastor; Vincent lived there in 1883–85 and made hundreds of drawings and paintings of local peasants, weavers, cottages and landscape. The area had several water-powered corn mills on its small rivers — the Opwettense Watermolen and the Collse Watermolen (near the hamlet of Kollen / Collen) both survive, restored and working, and are visitor attractions on a Van Gogh route. The mill in this group is one of those; the general setting can be found today.
What is in the painting?
The mill sits low across the middle of the picture — brick lower walls, dark boarded upper storey, a big roof, the wheel and sluice at one end. A broad millpond in the foreground reflects it; a plank or wooden footbridge crosses; pollarded willows and bare trees; one or two small figures. The palette is the dark earth-and-bitumen range of Van Gogh's Dutch years — browns, dull greens, grey.
Look closely
The mill wheel and sluice
The water wheel and sluice gate stand at one end of the low mill building.
The reflecting pond
The broad still millpond in the foreground doubles the mill.
The plank bridge
A wooden footbridge crosses the water, with a small figure or two.
The dark palette
Browns, dull greens and grey — Van Gogh's Dutch-period tonality, before Paris and colour.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A low horizontal mill and its reflecting pond, framed by pollarded trees, in a dark Brabant palette.
Scholarship Van Gogh centres the mill and doubles it in the still water, using the bridge and trees to give depth. The heavy, dark tonality and thick paint are those of his pre-Paris work, before he encountered Impressionist colour.
History & provenance
The Nuenen watermill pictures of 1884 are in various collections; the best known was for many years in the Kröller-Müller Museum and others are privately held.
Sources
- Van Gogh Museum / catalogue raisonné — the Nuenen watermill paintings (1884)
- Van Gogh Village Nuenen / Opwettense and Collse watermolen — the surviving mills
Related paintings
More by Vincent van Gogh
Café Terrace at Night
The Church at Auvers
Starry Night Over the Rhone
