Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum - Foreword - The museum and collection - The life of Vincent van Gogh

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by jay

Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum introduces the museum in Amsterdam and explains why its permanent collection is central to studying Vincent van Gogh and the art of his era. The text outlines the museum’s founding context, scale of paintings, drawings, letters, and the way works by Van Gogh’s contemporaries are displayed alongside his own. It describes the museum’s evolution through acquisitions, exhibitions, and building expansions, emphasizing how the visit follows the artist’s short career and his historical setting.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages148

Reading Time3 h 48 min

AccessFree to download

Foreword

The museum and collection

History

100 Masterpiecesin theVan Gogh Museum 100 Masterpiecesin theVan Gogh Museum Contents 3 Foreword 5 The museum and collection9 The life of Vincent van Gogh14100 MasterpiecesEarly work 1-11 Antwerp and Paris 12-37Arles 38-56Saint-Rémy 57-68Auvers-sur-Oise 69-75Artists 1840-192076-100 # Foreword The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the world’s largest collection of worksby Vincent van Gogh as well as a substantial number of paintings,drawings,printsand sculptures by other artists of the 1gth century.In the relatively short period sinceit was first opened in 1973 as a permanent home for the collections of the Vincent vanGogh Foundation,the museum has become a hugely popular institution.Each yearover a million visitors from all over the globe pass through our doors. With more than two hundred paintings,five hundred drawings,and a substantialarchive that includes some seven hundred of Van Gogh's letters,the museum is notonly a place of pilgrimage for the enthusiast but a seemingly limitless resource forthe detailed study of the artist and his era.A visit to the Van Gogh Museum affords theunique opportunity to follow almost every twist and turn in the artist's brief career,from his first hesitant exercises in a sombre realism through to the resplendentcolour of his last works.And these pictures are not seen in isolation but as part of anunfolding history of avant-garde art in the 1gth century and early 2oth century inwhich Vincent's works can be viewed alongside works by the leading artists of histime. A number of the paintings illustrated here are recent acquisitions.In its efforts toimprove the quality of its collection,the Van Gogh Museum has been fortunate toenjoy extraordinarily generous support from sponsors and benefactors including theVereniging Rembrandt;the Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit;the Mondriaan Stichting;the VSB-Fonds;and Sara Lee Corporation.The Van Gogh Museum is one of fournational museums that receives funds from the Sponsor Bingo Lottery and thissupport has greatly enhanced our purchasing power in recent years. This book is designed to reflect the very special character of the collections at theVan Gogh Museum.The selection of one hundred masterworks includes many ofVan Gogh’s major paintings as well as representative pictures by friends and contem-poraries such as Monet,Toulouse-Lautrec or Gauguin.The accompanying textsare brief in order to allow full play to the illustrations of the pictures.I hope that youwill enjoy this introduction to the collection and that it might inspire you to visit(or revisit)the museum itself to view these extraordinary works of art at first hand. , # The museum and collection Wheatfield under thunderclouds [73] The Van Gogh Museum opened in 1973.The collection,on loan from the Vincent vanGogh Foundation,comprises more than 200paintings,500 drawings,four sketchbooksand around 700 letters by Van Gogh.Themuseum also displays works by Vincent'scontemporaries which the artist and hisbrother Theo van Gogh(1857-1891)boughtor acquired through exchanges. A number of years ago the museum adopteda supplementary purchasing and exhibitionpolicy.As well as presenting its own VanGogh collection,the emphasis now lies onthe acquisition and display of Western,mainly French,art from the period1840-1920. The museum has evolved into an institutionwhich exhibits European art from the secondhalf of the nineteenth century and firstdecades of the twentieth century,with 4 works by leading French artists such asClaude Monet(1840-1926),Paul Gauguin(1848-1903),Georges Seurat(1859-1891),Pierre Puvis de Chavannes(1824-1898)and Odilon Redon(1840-1916). # History Although the museum is comparativelyyoung,its collection has enjoyed a long his-tory.Van Gogh's works originally belongedto Theo,Vincent's younger brother,whoworked for the Paris art dealers Goupil &Co.(later Boussod,Valadon &Cie.)in Paris.From the start of his career as an artistVincent sent the majority of his works

FAQs

Where is the Van Gogh Museum and what does it house?

The Van Gogh Museum is in Amsterdam. It houses the world’s largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh, plus paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures by other artists of the 19th century.

What is the scope of the museum’s collection?

The collection includes more than 200 paintings, 500 drawings, four sketchbooks, and around 700 letters by Van Gogh. It also displays works by Van Gogh’s contemporaries that he and Theo acquired.

How did the museum develop and expand over time?

The museum opened in 1973, and over subsequent decades it grew in popularity, leading to a decision to expand and renovate the building. A new exhibition wing was designed by Kisho Kurokawa and opened in 1999.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by jay