Why Nuenen, and Why Winter
Nuenen is a village of about 20,000 people just north-east of Eindhoven in North Brabant. Vincent van Gogh lived here from December 1883 to November 1885, when his father was the local Protestant minister. It was his most productive period before he moved to Antwerp and Paris: he painted weavers at their looms, peasants in the fields, the village church and the parsonage garden, and he worked his way through hundreds of studies of heads and hands towards The Potato Eaters of 1885.
Winter is a fitting time to visit. Van Gogh arrived in December, painted the weavers through the dark months of 1884, and made several pictures of the parsonage garden under snow in January 1885. The flat fields, bare poplars and low light he worked with are still the backdrop of the walk, and the village is quieter than in summer.
Start at the Van Gogh Village Museum
The Van Gogh Village Museum (Vincent van GoghHuis) at Berg 29 is the natural starting point. It explains Van Gogh's Nuenen years and how his time in Brabant shaped his work, including the road to The Potato Eaters through studies of peasants, heads and hands. It holds a changing temporary exhibition several times a year and Vincent's Lightlab, an interactive space on light and colour.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday; check the website for current hours and prices. Entrance is free for under-18s. The shop sells Out and about with Vincent, an English booklet with simple maps of the Van Gogh sites, and the museum can arrange guided walks with an English-speaking guide.
Sites on the Walk
The village identifies 24 locations linked to Van Gogh, with information panels at many of them. A compact winter walk can cover the core sites in the centre and the fields just outside it.
- The parsonage (pastorie) on Berg: the house where his parents lived and where he had a studio at first. It is a private residence, so it can only be seen from the street. Its garden appears in several of his paintings, including the snow scenes of early 1885.
- The Reformed church: the small church where his father preached, which Van Gogh painted with churchgoers leaving after a service.
- The old church tower site: the tower in the fields that appears in his paintings of the peasant churchyard. It was demolished in 1885, the year he painted it, and the site is now marked.
- Statue in the central park: a statue of Van Gogh stands in the park in the village centre, a short walk from the museum.
- The watermill at Opwetten: a mill on the Kleine Dommel north of the centre, which he painted in 1884. It still stands and is a good turning point for a longer walk.
Walking or Cycling in Winter
Allow two to three hours for the central sites at a gentle pace with the museum, or half a day if you add Opwetten and the field routes. Daylight is short in December and January, with sunset around 16:30, so start by late morning.
Two cycle routes that are part of the wider Van Gogh Cycle Route, the Nuenen Route and the Eindhoven Route, pass through the village. In winter, check the weather before cycling: paths are flat but exposed to wind and rain, and some unpaved field paths get muddy.
The Van Gogh-Roosegaarde Cycle Path
On the edge of Nuenen, part of the cycle route between Nuenen and Eindhoven is set with thousands of small stones that charge in daylight and glow after dark, a design by Daan Roosegaarde inspired by The Starry Night. Opened in 2014, it is a short stretch rather than a long route, but winter is the best season to see it because darkness comes early. It glows most strongly after a bright day.
Getting There
From Eindhoven Centraal, regional buses make the short trip to Nuenen; check the 9292 journey planner for the current line and times. By bike it is a flat ride of roughly 30 minutes from Eindhoven's centre. There is no railway station in Nuenen.
Combining With Eindhoven or Amsterdam
Most of Van Gogh's Nuenen paintings are not in Nuenen. The Potato Eaters and many of the related studies hang in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Hoge Veluwe National Park also holds Nuenen works. Seeing the village first and the paintings afterwards, or the other way round, makes both visits more rewarding.
