
Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper's long-standing correspondent and expert on the Dutch painter. Published on Fridays, stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist, to scholarly pieces based on meticulous investigations and discoveries.
Explore all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh here.
© Martin Bailey
New Van Gogh discovery: first version of despairing man that was bought for £6—and then hidden away for more than a century
The artist titled the drawing "Worn out" in English because he wanted to work for a London publisher
Where was Van Gogh originally buried? We still don’t know
In an extraordinary scene, reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Vincent’s skull was held aloft and moved in 1905
Van Gogh’s mysterious Wheatfield with Crows—what does it really mean?
Long assumed to be Vincent’s final painting, this foreboding scene is also full of life
Caught: the drug baron who claims to have bought €20m stolen Van Gogh paintings for 'their artistic value'
Arrested in Dubai, the story of Mafia suspect Raffaele Imperiale confirms long-suspected links between the drugs trade and art theft
Secrets of the two unknown Van Gogh Sunflowers
One has been always been hidden away in private collections and will fetch a fortune when it emerges; the other was destroyed by an American bomb
Ten surprising facts about Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, his greatest masterpiece
From a brothel garden to Nazi leader Hermann Göring’s fake—all part of the sunflower story
Exuberant Van Gogh landscape—featuring his beloved olive and cypress trees—could well make $40m at Christie's New York
Always hidden away in private collections, the painting will probably sell to a someone in the Far East
Discovered: a very early photograph of the trees in Van Gogh’s final picture, painted just hours before he fired the fatal shot
On the anniversary of Vincent’s death, his picture can be seen as “a suicide note in colour”
The Harvest: painted in a single summer's day, here's why this is Van Gogh’s finest landscape
Vincent needed to recover from his intensive work with a stiff drink and his beloved pipe
Exclusive: Rescued from an attic, lost Van Gogh landscape surfaces in Japan—here it is in colour
Vincent's watercolour of a Dutch meadow with cows was exhibited once, in 1903, and is known only from a small black-and-white photograph
Van Gogh’s self-portraits: what do they really reveal?
An exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery will be the most comprehensive ever held of Vincent's paintings of himself
How Van Gogh helped set up a brass band in his village
Dutch trombonist discovers documentary evidence revealing that Vincent supported a musical group which still plays today
A new Van Gogh work discovered hidden in a book
Reproduced here for the first time: a trio of sketches from Vincent’s village—designed as a bookmark
Discovered: American couple buys a picture by Van Gogh’s friend Edmund Brooke for $45 in antiques shop
Vincent was fascinated by his Australian colleague’s links with Japan—and together they painted landscapes in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise
A Degas bought by the Van Gogh Museum sparks off an ethical debate: are female nudes OK?
The controversial pastel stars in a show of new acquisitions in Amsterdam
Van Gogh 'immersive experiences': a guide to the global battle now reaching London
Presenting a vivid insight into Vincent’s art, Van Gogh Alive opens today in Kensington Gardens
India’s 'vaccine prince' has a Van Gogh landscape in his living room
Adar Poonawalla, who runs the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccine producer, claims to have the finest collection of European art in the sub-continent
How a Van Gogh painting was stolen from a Cairo museum—not once, but twice
The Khalil Museum, with its fabled Impressionists in a mansion by the Nile, has reopened after an 11-year renovation—without Vincent’s flower still-life
Irises: anniversary of Van Gogh’s finest garden picture, painted on his first morning in the asylum
Monet asked how the artist who made this exuberant masterpiece could possibly be unhappy—and a century later it became the most expensive work at auction
New discoveries about Van Gogh’s olive grove paintings revealed in upcoming Dallas and Amsterdam exhibitions
In Provence, Vincent loved the gnarled trees with a passion that rivalled his beloved sunflowers
Van Gogh's $30m riverscape with an absinthe-coloured sky comes up for sale at Christie’s
The story of Le Pont de Trinquetaille—with the young female mudlark and the ruffians from the red-light district
Van Gogh’s unknown period: his life in a remote Dutch heathland region
A new study and a 2023 exhibition will reveal how Vincent’s art developed in Drenthe—an escape from city life and his lover Sien
David Hockney follows in Van Gogh’s footsteps, painting fleeting spring blossom
Martin Gayford’s book pays tribute to Britain’s greatest living artist before an exhibition at London’s Royal Academy
Dutch police arrest over Van Gogh smash-and-grab raid: how long until the landscape is recovered?
The suspect is linked to a Frans Hals theft, which should help track down paintings from two museums
Who bought the €13m Van Gogh? Britain’s second richest family
Montmartre painting was auctioned twice by Sotheby’s, after a bidder failed to have the necessary cash
The tragedy of Vincent van Gogh’s youngest sister Willemien—a feminist who spent 38 years in an asylum
New book explores the extraordinary story of the three Van Gogh sisters
The astonishing tale of how a US vice president’s Van Gogh work ended up in Iran
Vincent’s print—inscribed “At Eternity’s Gate” by the artist—went from Nelson Rockefeller to Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art
New research reveals how a grasshopper got stuck—leaving its mark in Van Gogh's painting on a summer’s day in Provence
The new Nelson-Atkins Museum catalogue tells the full story of the Olive Trees
Boris Johnson says Van Gogh’s Sunflowers 'lifts the soul'—as the London masterpiece is unveiled in Australia
Britons will have to wait a bit longer to enjoy the painting as Covid-19 delays the National Gallery’s international tour, now on its final stop in Canberra
Bought for around $1,000, now worth $10m: where was the newly unveiled Van Gogh landscape hidden away?
Montmartre windmill painting is on view with Sotheby’s for the first time since it left the easel