Van Gogh Museum – Amsterdam | Tribute to a Genius

In the beautiful capital of the Netherlands ,Amsterdam, you can enjoy many attractions a good number of them are in Vondelpark, declared in 1996 monument of interest and it is one of the areas most visited by locals and tourists.

Vondelpark is a public urban park of 47 hectares in the borough of Amsterdam -Zuid west from the lively Leidsplein, concretely in Museumplein, a square in which are located the most important Amsterdam Museums such as the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Diamond Museum.

That square was designed by the Swedish architect Sven Ingvar Andersson specialist in redesigning important parks and squares all around the world.

The Van Gogh Museum is undoubtedly a great highlight and in no other museum in the world the art lovers will find many works of that genius called Vincent Van Gogh who with its unique works inspired the imagination of millions of people worldwide.

This Exhibition according to statistics is the 23rd most visited art museum in the world and in 2023 welcomed 1.7 million visitors.

This museum pay tribute to a genius with a collection of more 200 paintings ,prints, over 500 drawings and 700 letters that Van Gogh wrote much of his younger brother Theo are the relevant patrimony of that magnificent exhibition, unique in its kind, as well?works by other prominent artists such as Gauguin, Monet and Signac among others.

The museum consists of two structures built in different times. The design of the exhibition was commissioned by the Government of the Netherlands in 1963 to the furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld in 1963 who died a year later.

Van Gogh museum was officially opened in 1973 and over time suffered several modifications, the most important in 1999 with the addition of a new wing designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, funded by grants from The Japan Foundation organisation dependent of a insurance company based in Tokyo.

Since then the old Rietveld building, the main structure houses the permanent collection developed on a vast rectangular floor plan and it is four stories high.

On the ground floor there are a café, a shop and an introductory exhibition dedicated to the painter while the first floor is the place displaying the Van Gogh works that are grouped in a chronological way.

The second floor is dedicated to inform about restorations of paintings with a space used for minor and temporary exhibitions, the third floor is an area focused on the paintings of the artist contemporaries in relationship with the work of Van Gogh himself.

The Kurokawa wing is generally used for temporary exhibitions is three stories high developed on an oval plan with the entrance at the atrium of the building.

That Dutch master, post – impressionist painter was an eclectic artist, ingenious and imaginative in his own way, with direct and bold brushstrokes that generated sensations of movement and particular emotions, peculiar in his style, working with a sense of urgency frequently causing him stress, tireless, it is said that in the two months and a bit more preceding his death made a painting a day.

In its tormented and short life Vincent Van Gogh produced the incredible number of about 2100 artworks 864 paintings,150 watercolours and drawings.

The artist of Zundert died when he was only 37 years old, the term of only 10 years before succumbing to the ravages of mental illness which affected him throughout life and led to the suicide.

Theo's widow, Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger, inherited the collection and it was through her that Vincent's work became known.

Although some of the artist works were sold many of the most important and famed are displayed in that magnificent exhibition pride of Amsterdam, despite Vincent Van Gogh left the country to live in France where he died in Auverse-sur-Oise.

When Johanna Bonger died in 1925, his son Vincent Wilhelm van Gogh kept the works of the uncle until 1962, when he signed an agreement with the Dutch state yielding to the Vincent Van Gogh Foundation the complete collection of the great painter in addition to preserved hundreds of drawings and letters by the artist and works by Gauguin.

That foundation was the basis for the future Van Gogh Museum which is today one of the most outstanding exhibitions dedicated to a single painter in the world.

Works present in the museum include Country Houses, Nuenen Church with parishioners, Skull with Cigarette, Potato Eaters, Woman with her hair down, Still Life with three bottles, Self-Portrait with Hat, View of the roofs of Paris, Self-Portrait with Pipe, Still life with bottle and lemons, The room of Van Gogh, Sunflowers, Peach tree in bloom among others.

A visit to Van Gogh Museum if you are fond about art is a must, it is not only a simple exhibition of paintings but also a full immersion to learn more about a talented artist who despite his controversial life fascinated and conquered the world with his new style, expressions, colours and representations of many faces of our world and that magnificent museum is the right mean to know a great artist in all his unique essence.

Link : https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en