Van Gogh Museum

Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum

In the Museumplein you will find the Van Gogh Museum. The building was designed originally by the Dutch architect Gerrit Rietweld. Fans of art, especially of the Dutch Old Master Vincent van Gogh, will surely be remiss if they missed this museum. The Van Gogh Museum contains more than 200 paintings by Vincent Van Gogh who lived from 1853 to 1890. The museum also contains nearly every print, sketch, etching, and piece of correspondence the artist ever produced. The museum, opened in 1973, was a gift of Van Gogh’s sister-in-law with the understanding that none of the material ever leaves Vincent’s native land. The paintings are displayed in chronological order which allows the visitor the see and understand the artist’s artistic and psychological development. They are in seven distinct periods that defined his very short career. (Only one of his paintings was ever sold during his life). One of the best walls is on the second floor and has 18 paintings produced during a 2-year period in the south of France which is generally considered to be the high point of his brief career. There are also works by some of Van Gogh’s contemporaries including Monet, Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec. A new wing has recently opened that is elliptical and partially underground. This wing, designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, temporarily houses other works by van Gogh and other artists.

Moon Rising
by Davide Bernacchi

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