National Gallery Celebrates 200 Years with Van Gogh Exhibition

The National Gallery in London is marking its 200th anniversary with a significant exhibition dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition, titled Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, opens on 14 September 2024 and celebrates a century since the gallery acquired two of his most famous paintings: Sunflowers and Van Gogh’s Chair, both purchased in 1924.

This exhibition represents the first time the National Gallery has devoted an entire showcase to Van Gogh’s work. The exhibition aims to highlight Van Gogh’s remarkable skill in turning the ordinary into the extraordinary and offers insight into his creative process. Visitors can expect to see more than 50 works, including significant loans from prestigious institutions such as the Kröller Müller Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Musée d’Orsay.

Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers will particularly focus on the artist’s most ambitious works produced during his time in Arles and Saint-Rémy in the late 1880s. The exhibition will explore how these locations and the people he met influenced his artistic vision, providing a new perspective on the inspirations behind some of his renowned masterpieces.

A central theme of the exhibition is Van Gogh’s depiction of landscapes and portraits. It will illustrate how he infused his subjects and their environments with symbolic meaning, transforming everyday scenes into idealized, poetic representations. Furthermore, the exhibition will examine how Van Gogh perceived public gardens and asylum grounds as romantic spaces for lovers and poets, showcasing deeply personal connections between his life experiences and his art.

The exhibition is curated by Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle, who aim to provide a fresh interpretation of Van Gogh’s work during one of the most vital periods of his career. Despite his struggles with mental health and financial instability during his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh’s contributions to 20th-century art remain invaluable and influential.