In his correspondence, Van Gogh included extensive descriptions of the Drenthe area:
Just wanted to tell you about a trip to Zweeloo, the village where Liebermann stayed for a long time. The region around Zweeloo is currently all young wheat, endless sours, that very, very first green that I know.
With a sky of a fine lilac-white above it… driving into the village was so beautiful. Huge moss roofs of houses, stables, sheepfolds, barns. Here the houses are very wide, between oak trees of a superb bronze, imagine an avenue of tall poplars with autumn leaves, imagine a wide mud road, all black mud with heath to infinity on the right, heather to infinity on the left , a few black triangular silhouettes of a chain of sods, where a red light from the fire shines through the windows, with a few puddles of dirty, yellowish water that reflect the air, in which peat trunks rot.