Singer Laren

William Henry Singer Jr was the son of a Pittsburgh steel family who chose to paint instead, settled in Laren in 1901 with his wife Anna, and built a house and studio here; after his death in 1943 Anna turned the villa into a museum and added a concert hall, opened in 1956. The collection, some three thousand works, covers his own paintings, the Laren painters such as Albert Neuhuys, and Dutch and European art of the period. Laren mattered because it was a working artists' colony from the 1870s - Mauve, who had taught Van Gogh in The Hague, settled here - and a good deal of Dutch landscape painting came out of these fields. The concert hall gives the museum an unusual double life and the programme is serious. There is a sculpture garden and an extension for temporary exhibitions.

What you'll find

• A painter's villa and collection - Singer's house, studio and holdings, opened 1956.
• Laren painters - Albert Neuhuys and others among some three thousand works.
• An artists' colony village - Laren, where Mauve, Van Gogh's first teacher in painting, settled.
• A concert hall attached - a serious music programme alongside the galleries.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Things to know

Closed Mondays. Temporary exhibitions can take over the main space and the permanent collection rotates. Laren is affluent and quiet with limited parking. Concert dates change access.

Nearby

Hilversum and the Beeld en Geluid museum are west.

Key facts