Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories will range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries. © Martin Bailey
Van Gogh Museum exposes three early fakes
A vase of summer sunflowers in a late autumn scene proved a giveaway
'The Lovers': the key painting that the National Gallery couldn't track down for its Van Gogh exhibition
Seized by Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring, the picture disappeared in mysterious circumstances during the Second World War—but could it survive?
Ten surprises at the National Gallery’s five-star Van Gogh exhibition
Visitors will be ‘blown away’ by the masterpieces—but there are intriguing and little-known stories behind many of the loans
Nazi-era claims for two Van Goghs in Switzerland?
Acquired by the arms dealer Emil Bührle, both have been on loan to a Zurich museum
Bucolic Van Gogh riverscape with royal connections set to become the artist’s most expensive Paris work
“Moored Boats”, the “gem in the crown of the Bourbon collection”, will be auctioned in Hong Kong
An exclusive visit to Van Gogh’s asylum garden to track down the scenes that he painted
As Vincent wrote to his brother, “life happens … in the garden, it isn’t so sad”
‘It’s doing real damage’: new book on Van Gogh attacks idea that the artist was a nature painter
The author Michael Lobel argues that Vincent was more focused on industrial pollution
The ‘Mona Lisa of Brabant’: Dutch museum raises €6m towards buying a memorable Van Gogh portrait
At today’s prices, few museums are able to purchase paintings by Vincent—the artist who failed to sell his own work
Van Gogh’s Starry Night is back in Arles, revealing more of its mysteries
Visitors can also go to the spot where he stood his easel, enjoy the riverside view—and see how the artist transformed the scene into one of his best-loved paintings
Kernel of truth: pollen cone stuck in paint reveals where Van Gogh’s Irises grew
His purple flowers have now faded to blue, as revealed during research for a Getty exhibition in October
How drinking too much coffee fuelled Van Gogh’s work
A highly personal still-life painting featuring a pot, milk jug and cups offers an insight into daily life in the Yellow House
How Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom’ paved the way to Modern art
Tate’s show on Expressionism reminds us that Vincent was “the father of us all”
'One of my great heroes': A new book on Francis Bacon sheds light on his admiration for Van Gogh
Bacon believed the Dutch artist deformed reality “to make it more real”
Christie’s will get a record price for a Van Gogh Paris painting, with a garden scene estimated at up to $35m
Fluttering butterflies enliven the greenery, but also remind us of the transience of life
The Nazi collaborator who sheltered nearly 300 Van Gogh works during the war: Sam van Deventer’s story is now told
A new biography reveals that the director of the Kröller-Müller Museum had earlier acquired eight Van Goghs for his personal collection—and he may have sold the finest one to Hitler’s deputy, Hermann Göring
The fate of a Van Gogh flower painting destined for Japan’s 'Sheer Pleasure' pavilion
Kojiro Matsukata’s still life was destroyed in a London fire and his “Van Gogh’s Bedroom” was seized during the Second World War
‘That truly is nature’: the inspiring story behind four spring scenes Van Gogh painted just weeks after mutilating his ear
The optimistic April paintings were produced at an extremely challenging time for the artist
The paint was still wet: a closer look at three Van Gogh paintings heading to the Rijksmuseum
They include an Amsterdam townscape painted an hour or so before the artist visited the newly opened museum in 1885
Four fake Van Gogh self-portraits that publishers put on their book covers
These works deceive readers, giving a false impression about the artist
Did Van Gogh’s brother Theo have syphilis?
It is almost certain, and this could well be a reason behind Vincent’s suicide
Van Gogh’s potatoes: few artists would choose this subject for a still life
Vincent borrowed a casserole from his brother’s kitchen for the painting, which has just been acquired by Rotterdam’s art museum
Revealed: How Tate briefly considered acquiring a Van Gogh self-portrait—which was later exposed as a fake
The gallery couldn’t afford the price, of just under £20,000
New publication sheds fresh light on brothel scenes by Emile Bernard and Van Gogh
Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum this week publishes a catalogue focused on Bernard‘s rarely seen drawings featuring prostitution and sexual allegories
The Van Gogh painting that was stolen—and recovered in an Ikea bag—goes on show
Research reveals that the artist began the work as a winter scene and transformed it into a spring landscape
One of Van Gogh’s finest early watercolours is coming up for sale, estimated at up to £3m
Woman Sewing was inspired by a soulful English poem, “The Song of the Shirt”
A Dutch museum wants to buy a Van Gogh painting from an English collector
The portrait of Gordina, whom Vincent was accused of getting pregnant, is worth around £5m
Van Gogh 2024 highlights: London’s National Gallery takes the lead
There will be other exhibitions in Italy, France, the Netherlands and Taiwan—plus a topical book and a plethora of immersive experiences
Van Gogh in 2023: the best-ever series of exhibitions
Other highlights include the dramatic recovery of a stolen painting and an astonishing donation
When Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ was bought by the National Gallery it was snubbed as one of its top 100 acquisitions of the decade
Omitted from the 1920s book, next September the masterpiece will star in a London blockbuster on Vincent’s art of Provence