Van Gogh Museum

Given our stroke of luck in finding out how to get tickets for the Van Gogh Museum when we had failed to order them in advance, we were prompt about getting up and out to be in line when the museum opened at nine. The museum's floors are organized, as you go up, to present an introduction, with self-portraits, then his early creative life, then his connections with family and his many artist friends, and then his last creative years.

There are only a few places in the museum where you are allowed to take pictures, as I found out after taking the above shot, but there are a few. These Asian visitors were taking advantage of one of them.

There's also an additional exhibition space, where the current show is called "The Joy of Nature," about the influence of Van Gogh on David Hockney's work of the past fifteen or so years. This is the banner advertising it.

Van Gogh's "The Harvest," at left below, definitely has much in common with Hockney's Yorkshire landscapes.

After the death of Theo Van Gogh, the year after Vincent died, Theo's widow Jo apparently singlehandedly masterminded a campaign to raise awareness and appreciation of Vincent's genius, getting shows organized and selling some of the work in a tactical way to increase appreciation in both esthetic and financial senses of the word. In an introductory video to his show, Hockney says that if Van Gogh had lived another ten years he would have died a rich man.

In 1925, after Jo's death the Vincent Van Gogh Foundation was created by her son, Van Gogh's nephew and namesake Vincent Willem Van Gogh, with the goal of establishing a Van Gogh Museum to house the family collection. It took until 1973 for the museum to come to fruition, but it's a very nice one, beautifully designed and functional. It is a nice size, as one-artist museums tend to be--small enough so that you can see everything in one visit of reasonable length, and complete enough to convince any doubter of the importance of the artist. The related Hockney exhibition was also delightful. We had a very interesting and enjoyable day. (Lunch in the café was really good too.)