Dick Bruna (1927-2017)

It was in the news yesterday that Dutch artist and children's author Dick Bruna had passed away at the age of 89. Dick Bruna became known worldwide with his cartoon rabbit Nijntje, known as 'Miffy' outside The Netherlands. The books were part of my childhood, and with me many many other children. Since the creation of Miffy in 1955 over 85 million (!) books have been sold.

This photo was taken at the Dick Bruna exhibition in the Buitenplaats Museum in Eelde, that I visited back in March 2014. The text on the right tells about the typical style in which Miffy was drawn: the openness, the safety of Miffy's world, how she always stays young...

The apple as art

This rack with wooden apples by Kees Franse is part of the new exhibition "The Apple, Between Guilt and Innocence" in De Buitenplaats Museum in Eelde. The collection shows how the apple appeared in painted and sculpured art, both traditional and contemporary. But it also deals with the cycle of life and the seasons, mythology and symbolism of apples.

The wooden apples by Kees Franse date from 1971. Franse (1924-1982) was a Dutch painter and sculptor, he is known for his abstract and figurative works.

Signs of Autumn

I visit the Buitenplaats Museum in Eelde several times a year and love to wander around in the museum garden. Watching the change of seasons never bores..

Here Autumn seems to be nibbling on the leaves!

Lavender carpet

I'm sitting on a bench inside De Buitenplaats Museum in Eelde here, while my nose is "experiencing" the carpet of lavender leaves in front of me. Dutch artist Herman de Vries (1931) created this piece by using 54 kg of lavender. Imagine that! The intention is that visitors will have a 'sensory perception'. Well to be honest I could have sat here for hours, it was really really good.

The lavender carpet is part of the exhibition "Into Nature", which can be viewed throughout the province of Drenthe during the Summer: 40 works by national and international known artists are shown on 17 different places.

Frogs in a pond

More photos from Sweden will follow, but today a picture from my visit to De Buitenplaats Museum and its garden in Eelde last Thursday, where I spotted these two frogs in one of the ponds.

I'm linking to Saturday's Critters on Eileen's blog. Happy weekend :)

Nijsinghhuis entrance

This is the entrance door of the Nijsinghhuis, a 17th century house at the Hoofdweg in Eelde. Between 1896 and 1939 it was a town hall, years later followed by a school. a bank, an office. Then nothing.
To prevent the building from going into decline after that, it was eventually sold to the Van Groeningen family for the symbolic price of 1 guilder, under the condition that it would be renovated completely.
The Nijsinghhuis is now part of Museum De Buitenplaats. I have never been inside as it is only opened to the public on specific days, however I very much hope to visit it one day. If it looks as good inside as it looks on the outside, it´s quite promising!

Aquarelliste

Only a few sculptures are left to stay in the Buitenplaats Museum gardens during the winter months. This piece named 'Aquarelliste' by Jet Schepp is one of them, it is placed on top of a wall/grass grown roof across the Oranjerie, and pictures a lady who is creating an aquarel painting. It's a very peaceful scene.

Jet Schepp (1940) is a Dutch sculptor, she lives and works in Amsterdam.

My cappuccino in... Eelde

View from inside Museum de Buitenplaats in Eelde to the museum café, across one of the ponds...

...where I ended my visit with a cappuccino, served with a piece of home-baked speculaas. Speculaas is a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, very Dutch and traditionally eaten this time of year, but of course it also tastes delicious the rest of the year!

From London to Venice in one photo

This 8.1 meters long panorama photo is part of the current exhibition 'Portraits of Nature' in Museum de Buitenplaats in Eelde, and pictures the flight that Japanese painter/sculptor/photographer Hiroyuki Masuyama (1968) took from London to Venice.
Here Masuyama describes the movement of time and space as it is experienced in flight. He mounted his camera onto the window of his airplane and took a photo every 20 seconds. With several hundreds of photographs he then composed a single, monumental montage of the journey.

I cannot imagine what a difficult job this must have been to create, but I really like the idea!

The pond

Another view from yesterday afternoon, taken in the garden of Museum de Buitenplaats in Eelde. The sculpture in the pond is ´Atlas´, a bronze by Dutch sculpturor Lotta Blokker (1980). In Greek mythology, Atlas was the Titan who held up the sky. This sculpture however shows Atlas holding up another man.

I am linking to Weekend Reflections.

Autumn sun

In the garden of Museum de Buitenplaats in Eelde, earlier today.

Orangerie

Following up on yesterday's post, this is another photo of the orangerie. Starting in the 17th century many important houses had an orangerie in which plants could survive the winter. Over time these small and stylish buildings became a fashion. Not only plants, but also guests felt home in them, compare it to the conservatory we know nowadays.

This orangerie can seat 20 people, but when the weather is good plenty more people can have a seat. Since 2009 it is also the wedding location for the municipality of Tynaarlo.

Orangerie, above the entrance door

This is the stylish artwork above the entrance door of the Orangerie, a building on the grounds of Museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde, located next to the museum garden. Another photo and some more details will follow tomorrow.

Museum garden

Eelde, museum De Buitenplaats.

Son in the window sill

One of the pieces that I liked seeing when I visited museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde is this small bronze sculpture, named 'Zoon op de vensterbank' (Son in the window sill), created by Margriet Barends (1958). She is a Dutch sculptor who in her work mainly focusses on people, as well as animals.

Stinsen path

This narrow path known as the Stinsenpad or 'Stinsen path' belongs to the garden of De Buitenplaats Museum in Eelde. Here grow Stinsen plants, which is the Dutch and German name of a group of plants that were introduced a long time ago to grow and run wild on certain places like old country estates, farmsteads, and former city walls. Stinsen plants usually bloom in Spring. I don't know the name of the pretty white flowers on the photo, but their fragrance was gorgeous!

The word stins originally comes from West Frisian stienhus (Dutch steenhuis) 'stone house', shortened to stins. A stins is a former stronghold or villa in the province of Friesland. Many stinsen carry the name 'state' (related to English 'estate').

My cappuccino in... Eelde

A good cappuccino is really a treat for me. And when I took this photo earlier today, enjoying the sun on the outdoor terrace of Museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde, it occurred to me that I have taken more photos like these in the past. So maybe this post "My cappuccino in..." could be the first of a new series, let's see what happens :)

This particular cappuccino was served by a very friendly staff, and included a small glass of water and a mini 'stroopwafel' or 'syrup waffle', a popular Dutch sweet cookie.

A lady on a bench

The name that was given to this bronze piece of art by Dutch sculptor Guus Hellegers (1937) is "Jaguar". Photo taken in the garden of Museum de Buitenplaats in Eelde.

The Forest Spiral model

Following up on yesterday´s post one more example of organic architecture by Hundertwasser. This is a scale model (1:50) of 'The Forest Spiral of Darmstadt', a residential building complex with 105 flats built at the end of the 1990s in Darmstadt, Germany. The U-shaped building has a diagonal roof and each of the about 1,000 windows are unique, no two windows are the same. And another peculiar fact are its 'tree tenants' - trees growing out from the windows...
Even the model was amazing to see, imagine what it like seeing this complex in real!   :)

The photo was taken in Museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde, and the model is part of the exhibition 'The Third Skin'.

Hundertwasser tower

Museum De Buitenplaats in Eelde is a rather small museum though worth a visit because of their interesting exhibitions throughout the year. Until April 11 they present an exhibition about organic architecture, which they describe as 'architecture combined with art and nature'. With scale models, drawings, photos and paintings the work of Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000), and the architect agency Alberts & Van Huut (established in 1963) is showed.

One of the first things that caught my eye in the museum was this model (scale 1:50) that looked like a building from a fantasy film, but is in fact a 35 m high observation tower that was designed by Hundertwasser and built on the grounds of a brewery in Bavaria, Germany. On top is a gold-plated observation ball that has a 10 meter diameter... (!) Unfortunately Hundertwasser died in the year 2000 during the tower's planning phase, so he never saw the actual result.