Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists – National Gallery, London

The newly reopened Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery is currently full of Neo-Impressionists from a Dutch collection, in Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists.

Back at the Sainsbury Wing

Shall I let you in on a secret? After many years of complaining, I may have finally hit upon the right time to visit exhibitions at the National Gallery. Visiting late on a Sunday afternoon, which is not normally my habit, I found the experience surprisingly pleasant. No crowding or traffic jams: I could spend time looking at the works and reading texts. I will certainly try this timeslot again next time, as it made the whole experience much less stressful. I wonder if the same would work at the British Museum, the other regular overseller of tickets amongst London’s major institutions?

This was also my first time back in the Sainsbury Wing for some time. It reopened back in May 2025 after a two year renovation: the National Gallery’s Post-Modern extension was already in need of a rethink in terms of accessibility and visitor experience. The end result looks broadly the same, but is a little more spacious. The downstairs exhibition space is the same as far as I could see.

I believe that the exhibition under discussion today is the National Gallery’s first since reopening the Sainsbury Wing exhibition space. And it is an exhibition I was very keen to see. Despite living in the Netherlands for a period, I haven’t yet made it to the Kröller-Müller Museum. But one of the perks of living in London is that sometimes, if you wait long enough, things come to you. On this occasion, a slice of this famous collection, Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionist works.

Helene Kröller-Müller and her Collection

Helene Emma Laura Juliane Müller was born in 1869 in Essen, Germany, to a family of industrialists. Wm. H. Müller & Co. was a successful company supplying raw materials to the mining and steel industries. In 1888 she married Dutch entrepreneur Anton Kröller, from a family of more modest means but a savvy businessman. Well, either savvy or willing to do anything to turn a good profit – that might depend who you ask. But it is indisputable that, taking over his wife’s family firm, he turned it into a powerful global business. The upheavals of the 20th century, including the World Wars, were times of great profit and risk for the company.

After a risk to her health caused her to rethink her priorities, and having studied art and art appreciation, Helene Kröller-Müller turned her eye and a part of the family fortune to art collecting around 1910. Already in 1913 she made her boldly modern selection of artworks available to the public, exhibiting them in the main offices of the family firm. She amassed what was then the largest collection of works by Vincent Van Gogh in the world (since surpassed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam), and was also very keen on Neo-Impressionists. Fashions didn’t always follow the path she trod: she also collected hundreds of works by Bart van der Leck who is much less of a household name. Other artists in Kröller-Müller’s collection include Picasso, Braque, Rivera, Mondrian, and Léger.

Around the time Kröller-Müller started her collection, she decided she ultimately wanted to create a house-museum. In 1928 Anton and Helene created the Kröller-Müller Foundation to this end. In 1935 they donated the entire collection to the Dutch public, provided a large museum be built on the grounds of their estate. The museum opened in 1938 in De Hoge Veluwe National Park, created from this same estate. The 1930s were obviously a slightly tumultuous time: the circumstances of donating the collection and establishing the museum were part realisation of Kröller-Müller’s vision, and part financial necessity. But the fact remains that the collection, as well Henry van der Velde’s museum building (one of the first ‘white cube’ spaces for the exhibition of art), is of national and international importance.

Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists

We are here today to discuss the Neo-Impressionists from this illustrious collection specifically. But what are Neo-Impressionists. If I drop the names Seurat and Signac here, does that give you a clue? Neo-Impressionists are one name for a group founded by Seurat in the 1880s. Art critic and Neo-Impressionist supporter Félix Fénéon coined that particular term. Related terms include Chromoluminarism (preferred by Seurat), Divisionism, and of course Pointillism. As the Neo-Impressionists did not like this latter term, the National Gallery have steered clear of it. I don’t find Neo-Impressionism a particularly descriptive replacement, however.

The idea of the Neo-Impressionists, as we learn at the outset of the exhibition, is based on colour theory. Opposite hues on the colour wheel (such as purple/yellow, orange/blue), were believed to enhance the viewer’s perception, particularly when placed on the canvas as pure pigment and not mixed. The Neo-Impressionists thus painstakingly placed small dots of colour to build up landscapes, portraits and other scenes. Seurat and Signac are the most famous of the painters working in this technique, but the exhibition includes works by many other artists, creating a picture of this as an international movement. Some of these artists are relatively well-known, like Théo Van Rysselberghe. Others less so, like Henri-Edmond Cross, Jan Vijlbrief or Johan Aarts. The only woman included, Anna Boch, is not represented in the Kröller-Müller collection.

The exhibition divides the work of the Neo-Impressionists largely by subject matter. There are landscapes and portraits, of course. Landscapes are actually represented twice: early Seurat and Signac landscapes to begin with, followed by ‘radical’ landscapes at the end, verging on abstraction. The other thematic groupings I found to be a bit less convincing. A room about ‘silent’ group compositions makes you wonder if actually some of the paintings are just a bit stilted: something to do with the formality and lack of spontaneity of the technique, perhaps. And the idea that radical politics, particularly anarchism, tied the group together feels like a stretch. Sure, there are paintings of industrial scenes, peasants, and a before/after of a strike. But there are also a lot of paintings of the artists’ middle-class circle, which undercuts the point somewhat.

Reflections on the Exhibition

Although I felt the curators were perhaps squeezing a little too much meaning from the assembled paintings, I did enjoy this exhibition. Visually, it looks great. It’s not too densely hung, and the deep purple of the walls offsets the paintings nicely. I also really liked seeing the plain white frames of the Kröller-Müller Museum. That is something that feels genuinely radical, compared to the fussier frames of some of the other loans. It makes me think I really should make the effort to visit the Kröller-Müller Museum for myself one day.

As for the Neo-Impressionists themselves, I don’t think the exhibition changed my view of them drastically. I’m still going to call them Pointillists, and I’m not convinced they were much more politically radical than artists in general. I did like seeing a broad swathe of the movement, though, including artists I’m not very familiar with. And I liked being reunited with one work I saw many years ago in Antwerp, which I’d found so impressive I have a postcard of it somewhere. Further proof that if you live in London and wait long enough, everything comes to you eventually.

If you have a late Sunday afternoon going spare, I do recommend the exhibition. I didn’t go to the Kröller-Müller Museum when I lived in the Netherlands primarily because it’s a bit of a pain to get to (without a car, at least). Much more convenient to go to Trafalgar Square. And there are some really great works to see. In some ways I’m glad it is Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists on view here. I’m not sure there would be any quiet time to visit if it were the Van Goghs instead!

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists on until 8 February 2026