Dr Wouter van der Veen — The Scholar Behind the Exhibition
President of the Van Gogh Academy. Former Scientific Director of the Institut Van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise. The researcher who discovered where Van Gogh painted Tree Roots — his final masterpiece.
President of the Van Gogh Academy
Wouter van der Veen was born in 1974 in Doorwerth, a small village on the banks of the Rhine in the Netherlands. His family moved to France when he was ten, and he has lived between both countries ever since — a dual perspective that would prove essential to understanding Vincent van Gogh, a Dutchman whose artistic life unfolded almost entirely in France.
After studying Literature, Wouter landed his first professional role at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, where he was entrusted with a remarkable task: the transcription of Vincent's 350 French-language letters — covering the final four years of the painter's life, the years that made his legend.
Academic Career & Publications
In 2007, Wouter earned his doctorate from Utrecht University with a thesis titled Van Gogh, homme de Lettres, exploring the literary sources that shaped Vincent's thinking and painting. He went on to lecture at the University of Strasbourg and founded Éditions Arthénon, an independent publishing house dedicated to making Van Gogh scholarship accessible to the widest possible audience.
The Tree Roots Discovery
In 2020, Wouter made international headlines when he identified the exact location depicted in Tree Roots (Racines) — the painting Vincent was working on during his final hours on 27 July 1890. By cross-referencing a historic postcard with the painting's composition, he pinpointed a hillside on Rue Daubigny in Auvers-sur-Oise. The discovery was confirmed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and reported by media worldwide.
Van Gogh & Vincent
For Van Gogh & Vincent at Bracka 13 in Kraków, Wouter has personally designed every room, selected every object, and written every exhibition text. The result is not a standard exhibition. It is the most intimate and historically rigorous reconstruction of Vincent van Gogh's life ever created.
Credentials
- PhD, Utrecht University (2007) — Van Gogh, homme de Lettres
- President, Van Gogh Academy
- Former Scientific Director, Institut Van Gogh, Auvers-sur-Oise (2012–2022)
- Former Associate Professor, University of Strasbourg
- Author of 6+ published books on Van Gogh
- Founder, Éditions Arthénon (2004)
Open every day at Bracka 13, Kraków. Book your visit to the Van Gogh exhibition now.
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