Van Gogh Village Museum in Nuenen has recently added a special work to its collection. It is the painting ‘Werkende Boer’ (working farmer) by Anthon van Rappard. It is likely that this Dutch painter painted this watercolour side by side with Vincent van Gogh in Nuenen.
At the end of 2024, Piet and Bonnie Glasbeek from Friesland visited Van Gogh Village Museum in Nuenen. There they saw a painting by Van Rappard hanging on the wall. “I still have a watercolour by him””, Mr. Glasbeek told a museum volunteer. That’s when the ball started rolling.
A few months later, director Simone van der Heiden, Peter van Overbruggen (Stichting Kunstfonds, art fund foundation), and Richard de Kind (collection management) welcomed the Glasbeek couple, who brought the watercolour with them. The guarantee from Stichting Kunstfonds to safeguard the work for the future prompted the couple to donate their work to the museum.
Permanent exhibition
The management of Van Gogh Village Museum has decided to include Van Rappard’s watercolour in the permanent collection: in the gallery of Vincents Vrienden (Vincent’s friends). However, this meant that the Van Rappard wall had to be modified and another masterpiece from his Nuenen period had to be moved. Van Rappard is known for his sometimes complex friendship with Vincent van Gogh, which lasted from 1881 to 1885.
The artists worked side by side in Nuenen for some time in 1884. Few works by Van Rappard are known from this period. That is why it is so special that we can assume that the coloured drawing of Werkende Boer was created during one of these periods, according to the museum. A few years ago, a similar watercolour was sold, dated ‘probably May 1884’.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
