Vincent van Gogh exhibition marks 200th anniversary of National Gallery
Baku, September 14, AZERTAC
The National Gallery in London is celebrating its 200th anniversary with a landmark exhibition of Vincent van Gogh’s work, opening from 12 September, according to Artlyst. This show—Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, will mark a century since the gallery acquired two of his most iconic pieces: Sunflowers and Van Gogh’s Chair (1888), purchased in 1924.
This is the first time the National Gallery has dedicated an entire exhibition to Van Gogh’s work. The focus is on his unique ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, offering a window into his brilliant creative process. Visitors can expect to see over 50 works, with significant loans from renowned institutions like the Kröller Müller Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Musée d’Orsay.
The exhibition delves into Van Gogh’s most ambitious works, particularly those created in Arles and Saint-Rémy in the late 1880s. It will reveal how these places and the people he encountered helped shape his artistic vision, offering a fresh look at the inspirations behind some of his most famous masterpieces.
A key theme of Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers will be the artist’s portrayal of landscapes and portraits. The exhibition will highlight how Van Gogh imbued his models and settings with symbolic meaning, turning the everyday places he encountered into idealised, poetic scenes. It will examine how Van Gogh envisioned the public gardens and asylum grounds he painted as spaces for lovers and poets, revealing a deeply personal and emotional connection between his life and his art. Curated by Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle, the exhibition promises a fresh look at Van Gogh’s work during one of the most critical periods of his career.
Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 and died in 1890. He was a seminal Dutch Post-Impressionist painter in 20th-century art. Born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, Van Gogh first undertook a career as an art dealer and a missionary before taking up painting in his late twenties. His early works, like The Potato Eaters, concentrated on the hardships of rural existence with dark earth tones, culminating in an extraordinary sensitivity for the working class.
In 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris and was confronted with flourishing Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism. His style became different, having been charmed by the brilliant colours and energetic work of the brush. Later works: the series Sunflowers and The Café Terrace at Night. Later, when he was in Arles in the South of France, his mental health started to get worse, but some of the most famous works appeared during this period: Starry Night and The Bedroom.
Despite his tremendous productivity, Van Gogh had severe mental health problems and was not economically stable during his lifetime. In 1890, he died of self-inflicted injuries caused by a gunshot. During his lifetime, Van Gogh was largely unknown.
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