w. roelofs cattle near the watermill at Ruurlo
In 1871 the Dutch landscape painter Willem Roelofs wrote to his Belgian friend Henri Hymans that he had arrived at the most primitive place in the Netherlands: a small rural village called Ruurlo. A place without railway or telegraph but according to Roelofs with beautiful trees, virgin forests and cottages with straw roofs with ' a charming tone'. Since a few months the village Ruurlo is my place of residence. I live in an old farmhouse with a straw roof just outside Ruurlo. The farm was built in 1882 and is located close to the place where Roelofs has painted some landscapes. I have noticed that many things have changed since Roelofs' visit in 1871. Nowadays twice an hour a train connects you with the rest of the Netherlands and soon the inhabitants of Ruurlo will dispose of an advanced fiber cablenetwork to communicate with the rest of the world. The cottages with straw roofs are replaced by large farmhouses but many of them still have a 'charming tone'. Beautiful trees are abundant and small virgin forests are still present in my neighborhood. The brook "Baakse beek" follows about the same course as in the past but it is smaller now. The watermill near the castle of Ruurlo (see above) lost its paddles in the course of time but there are plans to restore the mill. The traditional haystacks painted by Roelofs (see left) are definitely gone. So if I want to paint them ''en plein air' I will have to make them myself. May be I should give it a try in the next hay season. I live on a farm, after all.