Now on display...


Exhibition 'The eye of Vincent van Gogh in Brabant'
In the exhibition 'The eye of Vincent' we tell the story of life in an Oirschot peasant family back then, with Van Gogh as guide. It shows us how sustainably our ancestors used food and energy. Not a crumb of bread was waste d! We can smell and taste the dishes, peel the potatoes, touch the fabric of the clothes and even experience what it was like to sleep in a box bed. Taste, feel and experience life from then, from the eyes of Vincent.

Brabant in the time of ... 

In the time that the world-famous painter Vincent van Gogh lived in our province (second half of the 19th century), the people of Brabant were slowly awakening from centuries of poverty and oppression. Machines started to take over the work of humans and animals. But Van Gogh was particularly attracted to the people who still lived in the traditional way: simple, honest and pure. He made beautiful sketches and paintings of the constantly labouring but still happy people of Brabant.

Vincent van Gogh

Linking the museum and Van Gogh


The museum shows you life as it was at that time in Brabant, as seen through the eyes of the famous artist Vincent van Gogh. The link between Van Gogh and the museum is not as strange as it might first appear.

They both show the traditional life of that time: Van Gogh in his paintings and sketches (reproductions) and the museum with its unique collection.


Photos of your museum visit

 Post the best photos of your museum visit on Instagram and Facebook and add one of these hashtags: #VIERQUARTIEREN #OOGVAN VINCENT #MUSEUMOIRSCHOT @devierquartieren

Museum de Vier Quartieren
Quests in and around the museum

Treasure hunts in and around the museum

What's more fun than taking a good look around in your own surroundings? Discovering unusual buildings and streets. How did they get there and why are they called what they're called? And who lives there and what did the people do in the old days? Museum de Vier Quartieren offers two photo treasure hunts, one inside the museum and one outdoors. Come along and enjoy all the great things around you! 

 

Become a museum inspector



If you're older than 12 years and you'd like to show us what you think of our museum, become a museum inspector and register at museumkids.nl. Take part in the competition to find the best museum inspector of the year and you could win one of the ten prizes. The new inspection year has started


Been...

Museum digitally open

As part of the National Museum Week from 19 to 25 April, our museum was digitally 'open'.
Experience the stories and images from Museum de Vier Quartieren below. Lots of fun!




What happens in a box bed? In Museum de Vier Quartieren in Oirschot there is a box bed in the upstairs room above the basement. A box bed is a special type of bed in which people sleep. It is a cupboard with curtains or doors, in which a mattress was placed on shelves. These mattresses were sacks filled with straw, cotton or horsehair. Until well into the nineteenth century, almost everyone slept in a box bed, after which the cot was slowly introduced. The box beds are quite short. We couldn't sleep in it for long. That is because the people were smaller than now, but also because people slept half sitting. They thought that would be healthier. While sleeping, people rested leaning against a bolster, a firm round bottom pillow, with the pillow on top. Because there were only a limited number of box beds in the house, the children slept alternately - head, feet, head - together. At the foot of the bedstead of father and mother, the box with the baby in it stood on a shelf. Because the doors or curtains could be closed, mother and father still had a little privacy, but it was not really healthy. People had a lot of problems with fleas and bed bugs. That is why the mattresses in the box bed had to be changed every year in the spring.

What is an Agnus Dei for? Museum de Vier Quartieren has a beautiful collection of large and small Agnus Dei. An Agnus Dei is, in addition to a sung Mass, also a piece of wax from candles. Agnus Dei means Lamb of God. The wax came from leftover candle wax from the Easter candle from Rome. This wax was consecrated by the Pope on Beloken Easter – this is the first Sunday after Easter. From Rome the laundry was spread over the monasteries. There the wax was processed in paintings, boxes and holders. An image of the Mystic Lamb or of Mary with baby Jesus was printed in the wax. The Agnus Dei were hung in the house or stable to protect the family from illness, lightning, fire and storms. Agnus Dei hearts were also made and distributed in the nunneries. A tiny piece of Easter candle was placed between two pieces of fabric or leather in the shape of a heart, after which the hearts were sewn together by hand. The hearts would provide support and protection for all kinds of everyday occasions. They were therefore worn on the skin as a kind of talisman. During the Second World War, the need for Angus Dei among Catholics was very great. After all, it was a dangerous time and people turned to faith for support.

What was a lamp set used for? We cannot imagine that, but about a hundred years ago, only three quarters of households were connected to the water supply and most people had only one tap with running water. That is why people washed in the bedroom with the help of a set of lamps. A lamp set consists of a large wash bowl, a jug, a soap dish and a bowl for the comb. Often a potty was also included, so that you didn't have to go outside at night to pee. This was put under the bed. The washbasin, water jug and bowls were placed on a table. The pitcher was filled in the kitchen with water heated on the stove. That water was poured into the wash bowl and with a cloth and some soap you could wash your face and a little under the armpits. You did real washing on Saturday when the work was done, in the tub in the kitchen. Lamp sets or wax fittings were already known in the eighteenth century. The word lampet appears for the first time in 1524 in the sense of water jug. Museum de Vier Quartieren has several lamp sets in its collection.
Why isn't a hairdresser called a clipper? Museum de Vier Quartieren has a beautiful hair salon from the 1930s with all the trimmings. But where does the name 'hairdresser' come from, while he mainly cuts hair? 'Hairdresser' comes from the Latin word 'cappa' which means headgear. Just think of hood. A barber was someone who put on the headgear of rich women. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the meaning became broader and it was understood to mean 'making up one's hair'. An old name for hairdresser is barber. The word barber comes from the Latin word 'barbe' which means beard. In the Middle Ages, barbers were also surgeons for minor procedures and bloodletting. Later, the barber mainly focused on shaving men. This was done with a very sharp razor, which was sharpened on a leather belt. The beard was soaped with a shaving brush and the customer was given a shaving bowl - that is a plate with a recess in it - pressed against his throat so that no soap got on the customer's clothes. A good barber handled the knife without cutting his client. If that did happen, the barber used alum to staunch the bleeding. In the hair salon of the museum, many men have shaved. They came there for fun, because the hairdresser knew all the local news.

How did people keep it warm in the house in the past? Museum de Vier Quartieren has a large collection of pitchers and stoves. What we can no longer imagine is how cold it used to be in the houses. In the herd a fire was lit in the fireplace and it was a few degrees warmer there than outside. The rest of the house was just as cold as outside. Because the winters were much colder than now, people crawled as close to the fire as possible. They would say: 'Freeze from behind and burn from the front'. To keep the body warm, people wore a lot of clothes in winter and people put a hot water bottle in bed before going to sleep. A pitcher is a copper bottle that has been filled with warm water. There were also several foot stools in every household. These are simple wooden boxes that were open on one side and had holes at the top. A test – an earthenware container – containing some glowing coals was placed in the stove. Women who had to do a sedentary job, such as peeling potatoes or mending stockings, put their feet on the stove and threw their long, wide skirts over it. This caused the heat to rise. That gave a good feeling.
Since when do we eat potatoes? In the herd of the Museum de Vier Quartieren in Oirschot, the table is set for a meal with potatoes. The farmers in the nineteenth century all ate from one bowl. With their forks they dipped the potato in melted fat and then ate it. Potatoes were eaten a lot, but that has not always been the case. When the potato came to the Netherlands from South America, the tuber was mainly regarded as pig food. Until then, our food mainly consisted of grain products, such as bread and porridge. Many onions, legumes and root crops were also eaten. Mainly because of the failed grain harvests at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, people started eating potatoes. The potato skins went to the pigs and the potatoes were eaten with salt and melted lard. What was left was baked the next day. The potatoes were kept in the potato cellar. The most famous Dutch potatoes are the Bintje and Eigenheimer.

What was a hay box used for? In Museum de Vier Quartieren in Oirschot you can view a real hay box. That is not a box to store hay in, but to allow food to be cooked without using energy. The hay box is therefore in the kitchen of the museum. The hay box was made from a simple square box, which was high enough to hold a large pan. The box was filled with hay. Dishes that had to cook for a long time, such as porridge, rice, legumes and meat stews, were placed in the hay box and covered with hay. In this way, after being briefly boiled or fried, they were slowly cooked. The advantage of a hay box is that it does not cost any fuel, cannot burn and you can go to sleep or work in the garden. In the time when people cooked on an open fire and could only hang one dish over the fire at a time, this was the way to put two dishes on the table. The farmers made the hay box themselves, but from about 1900 you could also buy a hay box. Especially during the First and Second World War, the hay box was very popular. A similar way to cook food in the 1950s and 1960s was to put the pan in bed wrapped in woolen blankets. A hay box was also called a 'choke bag'. Nowadays you also have a modern version of a hay box. The museum's hay box is called Het Spaarvarken, because you literally save money with it.
Where does our tradition of the Christmas tree with baubles come from?
Curious too? Then look back at the NTR program 'For the form'. In it, tradition expert Ineke Strouken from Museum de Vier Quartieren tells designer Christien Meindertsma about the history of the Christmas bauble and Christmas tree. How and when did we come up with the idea to decorate a Christmas tree and when did the Christmas ball come into the tree? Who invented the Christmas ball and what did the first Christmas decorations look like? Who decides what we have hanging in the tree? And what does your Christmas tree say about you and your family history?


Wim Daniëls on Heritage Day 2020
Open Monumentendag Oirschot
Writer Wim Daniëls gave two lectures in the Museum de Vier Quartieren in Oirschot on Sunday 13 September as part of Open Monuments Day. The theme of Open Monuments Day this year was 'Learning monuments'. Daniëls followed up with a lecture on the history of Dutch education. Among other things, he wrote books about primary school and MULO. The lectures were well attended.
In the museum you can still see display cases with old educational objects, in addition to the current exhibition 'The eye of Vincent in Brabant'. Competition results Under a glass cube - which can be seen from the courtyard of the museum - is a special object from the educational past. Anyone who knows what the object is called and what it was used for had a chance to win a prize. The answer is: a donkey hood. It was used to punish children. The winner has now been notified.
Leermonumenten Oirschot