Wassermühle in Kollen bei Nuenen

Two red roofs, a mill seen square on, and poplars all around: in May 1884 Vincent van Gogh spent two days with this water mill near Nuenen and described it in a letter to a friend.

The story behind the painting

In 1884 Vincent van Gogh was living at Nuenen, in the south of the Netherlands, and the countryside around him became his subject. On 28 and 29 May he painted the water mill at Kollen, close to the village. On 29 May he described the work in a letter to his fellow painter Anthon van Rappard, catalogued as letter 448. He wrote that since Rappard had left he had been working on a water mill, the one he had asked about in a little inn at the station, "with two red roofs, and which one views square on from the front - with poplars around it." That letter lets us date the painting almost to the hour.

What to look for

Use Van Gogh's own words as a guide. Look for the two red roofs of the mill, the warmest notes in the picture. Notice that he chose to view the building square on, from the front, rather than at a picturesque angle, so it sits firmly and simply before us. Then find the poplars that surround it, tall vertical accents framing the mill. The painting belongs to his early, realist years in Brabant around Nuenen. Sources differ on its size: Wikipedia gives 60.5 by 80 centimetres, while Wikidata records 57.5 by 78 centimetres.

Meaning and intent

For Van Gogh in Nuenen, ordinary rural buildings and working places were worthy subjects, and a water mill was part of the daily life of the region. The letter shows how actively he sought such motifs: he asked about this particular mill in an inn before setting out to paint it. Choosing a frontal, straightforward view suits that attitude. Rather than dramatising the scene, he records it honestly, with the mill and its trees presented as they stood. The painting also speaks of his friendship with Rappard, with whom he shared his progress and his search for subjects.

Legacy

The water mill itself still stands and became a Dutch national monument in 1972. The painting, catalogued as F48a and JH488, passed through dealers and collectors in the Netherlands and the United States, and was offered at auction in New York in 2017 under the title Le Moulin à l'eau. It was then acquired by the Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, about 40 kilometres north of the mill. So the picture has come home to Brabant, near the landscape where Van Gogh painted it, where visitors can see it and, if they wish, travel on to the mill that inspired it.