Next year, Drenthe will be dominated by Vincent van Gogh. Then it will be 140 years since the artist visited our province. Sunflowers were sown today as a warm-up. That happened in Hoogeveen, where Van Gogh stayed for a few weeks in September 1883.
“We want to do some advertising for the Vincent van Gogh year,” says organizer Geert Oldenbeuving. “The man has of course made fantastic art and we have to honor that. We sow the sunflower seeds on the bare ground at the roundabout along Limburg van Stirumstraat. A lot of traffic drives past there, so we hope for a lot of attention when the flowers grow. “
The King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma was present and was allowed to put the first seed in the ground. “That is of course a great honour. In this way we want to lure people to Drenthe. Van Gogh has been to several places in our province and we want to show that it is good to stay at those locations, including in Hoogeveen.”
Klijnsma and her family even have a connection with the artist. Her father had a stonemasonry on Kerkstraat. He also made a plaque for the house where Van Gogh briefly lived at the time. “You can see Vincent’s head on the stone and it is still hanging there. I am proud of that.”
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