Van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh Museum The world’s largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh. Like us and stay updated!

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the largest collection of art works by Vincent van Gogh in the world. The permanent collection includes more than 200 paintings by Vincent van Gogh, 500 drawings and more than 800 letters. The museum also presents exhibitions on various subjects from 19th-century art history.

Provence seen through Dutch eyes 👀 What do we mean by that? Well, in ‘The Drawbridge’ (1888), Van Gogh paints a quiet ca...
31/05/2026

Provence seen through Dutch eyes 👀 What do we mean by that?

Well, in ‘The Drawbridge’ (1888), Van Gogh paints a quiet canal near Arles. But when you look at it more closely, you’ll spot a distinctly Dutch drawbridge.

There might be a reason for that. Van Gogh had just left the chaos of Paris behind, searching for calm, light and inspiration in the South of France. And yet, this familiar type of bridge must have reminded him of home. So much so that he painted it not once, but about four times. This painting belongs to that series.

🖼️ © Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud

What do these four paintings have in common? 👀At first glance, just flowers, right?These works actually belong together....
30/05/2026

What do these four paintings have in common? 👀
At first glance, just flowers, right?

These works actually belong together. All four were painted by Van Gogh in May 1890, just before he left the psychiatric institution in Saint-Rémy (in the South of France). He conceived them as a set: two bouquets of irises and two of roses, exploring different formats, colours and compositions.

The arrangements are also similar: they all feature complementary colours, and share a search for balance and harmony. A group of works made in the final days of Vincent’s stay in Saint-Rémy.

Did you expect them to be connected?
1 ‘Irises’, 1890 © Van Gogh Museum
2 ‘Roses’, 1890 © The National Gallery
3 ‘Roses’, 1890 © The MET
4 ‘Irises’, 1890 © The MET

These three portraits of Agostina Segatori were all painted in the same year, but they are worlds apart in colour and mo...
29/05/2026

These three portraits of Agostina Segatori were all painted in the same year, but they are worlds apart in colour and mood.

Agostina was the owner of the Parisian café Le Tambourin, a former artist’s model, and, for a time, Vincent van Gogh’s lover.
In the yellow portrait, Van Gogh was inspired by Japanese prints, which is reflected in the flattened background, strong outlines and decorative quality. (1)
In another, she sits in her café with a beer and a cigarette. At the time, this was considered inappropriate for ‘respectable’ women, and more associated with artists or women on the margins of society. (2)
And then there’s the quieter version, where she appears subdued, almost muted. (3)

Van Gogh wasn’t just painting a person, he was exploring how colour and style can shape what we see and feel.
1 © Museé d’Orsay
2-3 © Van Gogh Museum

What do these works have in common? 👀They share the same canvas! Two entirely different stories, painted two years apart...
28/05/2026

What do these works have in common? 👀

They share the same canvas! Two entirely different stories, painted two years apart. The side with the peasant study in dark tones dates from 1885 in the Netherlands. (2) Turn the canvas over, and we’re transported to 1887 in Paris: brighter and bolder, as Van Gogh experiments with colour. He often reused canvases to save money. Smart, right?
Short of funds, he painted himself: ‘I purposely bought a good enough mirror to work from myself, for want of a model.’

Which side would you display?
1 ‘Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler)’, 1887 © The Met
2 ‘The Potato Peeler (reverse: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat)’, 1885 © The Met

At first glance, it’s just a carafe and some lemons… right?But the carafe in this painting is made out of glass, which m...
27/05/2026

At first glance, it’s just a carafe and some lemons… right?

But the carafe in this painting is made out of glass, which makes it anything but simple to paint. You’re not just painting the object, you’re capturing reflections, distortions and everything seen through it at once. Like the reflections of the wallpaper… did you notice those?

🖼️ ‘Carafe and Dish with Citrus Fruit’, 1887 © Van Gogh Museum

Parlez-vous français? 🇫🇷 Vincent was a Dutch artist, but he wrote about a third of his letters in French. At the time, F...
26/05/2026

Parlez-vous français? 🇫🇷 Vincent was a Dutch artist, but he wrote about a third of his letters in French. At the time, French was the most important international language and children of the middle classes were expected to learn the language. Van Gogh could speak French from an early age, yet it was only after he moved to Paris, in 1886, that he completely switched to writing in French. ‘If you’ll let me write to you in French’, he writes to his sister Willemien, ‘that will really make my letter easier for me’.

Vincent came to see France as his second home. He wanted to make a name for himself as an artist there. Vincent usually ended his letters to his brother with ‘tout à toi, Vincent’ (ever yours, Vincent).

🖼️ 'The Blute-Fin Windmill', 1886 © Glasgow Museum

Maybe we spend more time hoping things will get better, while waiting, overthinking, and scrolling. But according to Van...
25/05/2026

Maybe we spend more time hoping things will get better, while waiting, overthinking, and scrolling.
But according to Van Gogh, hoping for better times isn’t just a feeling, it’s a doing.
What do you think?

Need a hand? Well, there are plenty in these drawings made by Van Gogh. Not because it was easy, but because it wasn’t.V...
24/05/2026

Need a hand? Well, there are plenty in these drawings made by Van Gogh. Not because it was easy, but because it wasn’t.

Van Gogh practised relentlessly, repeating hands, faces and figures again and again. He believed drawing was ‘the root of everything’, using it to train his eye and sharpen his skills.
So every line here shows us practice, persistence and progress. 💪

Shoes were an unusual subject to paint in Van Gogh’s time. 👞 Most artists painted elegant still lifes, often symbolising...
23/05/2026

Shoes were an unusual subject to paint in Van Gogh’s time. 👞 Most artists painted elegant still lifes, often symbolising wealth. But Vincent was drawn to these objects that ‘bore the scars of life’. He even bought old work shoes at flea markets, walked through the mud in them, and only then considered them worthy of painting.

What do you see in this still life? Some see a disguised self-portrait. Others, a symbol of Van Gogh’s long journeys. Or perhaps he simply loved capturing their worn beauty.

🖼️ ‘A Pair of Shoes’, 1887 © Baltimore Museum of Art

22/05/2026

You might be more like Van Gogh than you think... 👀

Learn more in the exhibition In Search of an Anchor, on view until 20 September 2026.
Made by The Reframers.

Adres

Museumplein 6
Amsterdam
1071DJ

Openingstijden

Maandag 09:00 - 17:00
Dinsdag 09:00 - 17:00
Woensdag 09:00 - 17:00
Donderdag 09:00 - 17:00
Vrijdag 09:00 - 21:00
Zaterdag 09:00 - 17:00
Zondag 09:00 - 17:00

Website

Meldingen

Wees de eerste die het weet en laat ons u een e-mail sturen wanneer Van Gogh Museum nieuws en promoties plaatst. Uw e-mailadres wordt niet voor andere doeleinden gebruikt en u kunt zich op elk gewenst moment afmelden.

Snelkoppelingen

Delen

Type

//iconSize: [32, 32], //html: '' }) .bindTooltip(name, { //permanent: true, direction: 'bottom', //offset: L.point(12, 25), //opacity: 0.88, interactive: true }) .bindPopup(name); markersLayer.addLayer(marker); } function getMore() { if (gettingMore) { return; } gettingMore = true; var center = map.getCenter(); $.ajax({ url: "/vicinitysearch", data: { lat: center.lat, lng: center.lng, country: "NETHERLANDS" } }) .done(function(data) { var added = 0; data.forEach(function(loc) { if (!locationIds.includes(loc.id)) { var mapLoc = {id:loc.id,lat:loc.latitude,lng:loc.longitude,title:trunc20(loc.name),popupHtml:loc.popupHtml,urlPath:loc.urlPath,pictureUrl:loc.pictureUrl}; locations.push(mapLoc); locationIds.push(loc.id); map._addMarker(mapLoc); added++; } }); }) .always(function() { gettingMore = false; }); } map._clearMarkers = function() { markersLayer.clearLayers(); } }); }, 4000); });