Van Gogh Museum

Where: Amsterdam, Netherlands
When: May 6, 2017
With: Dave

After finishing our time in the Rijksmuseum, we continued the museum blitz through Amsterdam with a trip to the Van Gogh Museum.

As we had some time before our scheduled entry to the museum, we enjoyed a hot beverage while I got artsy with my camera, channeling my inner Van Gogh to capture the pails of flowers adorning the cafe tables.

And then I looked up, and who should I see, but Van Gogh himself, easel and blue smock, heading across the square. While I realized it must be a street performer, it still took me by surprise for a minute to see him wandering by. 

After finishing at the cafe, we decided to explore the Museumplein until it was our time to enter the museum. This grassy lawn is surrounded by some of Amsterdam's most prominent museums. Open and green, it has plenty of spots to sit and enjoy the sun, including this weird manmade hill. 

On the northeast border of the green sits the Rijksmuseum.

On the southwest border sits the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam's concert hall. 

On the western side sits the Stedelijk Museum (to the left) and the Van Gogh Museum (to the right). 

In the square between the Van Gogh and Stedelijk sit some fun sculptures. 

I couldn't resist the selfie opportunity. 

And finally, our time in the Van Gogh Museum came! Sadly no photos inside (hence the heavy photos for the Museumplein!)

The only spot I could take any photos was the entrance hall. I thought this view of the outside from the inside was very cool. 

The museum took us on a tour through Van Gogh's short life. When he decided to become an artist at the age of 27, he devoted himself to drawing and feverishly attempted to learn everything he could about the human form. By 29, he felt ready to pick up the paintbrush and began painting scenes of Dutch countryside and peasants, his favorite subject. While he thought he was quite good, his paintings didn't receive the recognition he expected, so he moved to Paris to continue studying. This is one of his more famous early works, The Potato Eaters.

There were a ton of self-portraits in the museum. We learned that every time he heard of a new method of painting, he practiced it with himself as the subject. Eventually, he found his distinctive style using broad brush strokes and bold color blocks to give the optical illusion of detail in an unexpected way. 

My favorite aspect of his style is the way he globs the paint on the canvas and creates visible texture in his strokes - it makes seeing his paintings in person so much more exciting. In this early work of his, View of the Sea at Scheveningen, he actually squeezed the paint onto the canvas right from the tube. It was such a windy day, there are pieces of sand still caught in the paint. Interestingly, this painting was actually stolen from the museum 14 years ago, and only just recovered a few months before our visit. We were lucky to see it on display as one week later it would be under renovation to repair the damage it sustained while it was missing. 

After only ten years of painting, and suffering from a yet-to-be-diagnosed mental illness, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest at the age of 39 and died two days later from his wounds.  While most of his major works sit in museums around the world, this museum's pride and joy is one from his Sunflowers series. He considered himself a master at painting sunflowers. It's so bright and cheerful that it gives no indication of the tragic end of its artist just a year and a half later. 

It's amazing how many works of art Van Gogh had for such a short period of painting. It's also amazing how iconic he is. Van Gogh is easily my favorite artist, but based on the scores of people inspecting his life and art in the museum, it's clear I'm not alone. His paintings seem to speak to us on another level. This museum was fantastic!