Follow Emma Scully through time as she encounters Van Gogh.

By the outbreak of World War I, with the discovery of his genius by the Fauves and German Expressionists, Vincent van Gogh had already come to be regarded as a vanguard figure in the history of modern art.

Largely self-taught, Van Gogh believed that drawing was “the root of everything.”

Former High School Intern Mely explains how Vincent van Gogh taught her to stay open to learning.

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) believed that drawing was "the root of everything." A self-taught artist, he succeeded, between 1881 and 1890, in developing an inimitable graphic style. This book traces the artist's successive triumphs as a draftsman, first in the Netherlands and later in France, highlighting the diversity of his technical invention and the striking continuity of his vision. Given the pivotal role drawings played in Van Gogh's artistic conception and the rich dialectic they enjoyed with his oil paintings, a small selection of related canvases by the artist is also featured. This book presents approximately 120 works in charcoal, ink, graphite, watercolor, and diluted oils. The authors explore enduring questions that surround Van Gogh's drawings, including their manufacture, artistic precedents, and contribution to Modernism. In addition, the text discusses the significance of the artist's drawing practice to his development as a painter. The essays and entries feature the most current research on Van Gogh's drawings and provide fresh interpretations of the motivating influences that shaped the artist's contributions to the history of drawing.

Former High School Intern Luca describes Vincent van Gogh's Cypresses, currently on view in gallery 826.

Van Gogh in Arles documents the first major exhibition devoted to the fifteen-month period in 1888–1889 that the Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh worked in the ancient Provençal town of Arles in the South of France. His move from Paris to the Midi gave rise to bold experimentation in the use of color and to explorations of style and subject matter. The paintings and drawings he created during this time—of which more than 140 have been assembled from public and private collections for the exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art—mark the height of his artistic development and a turning point in the course of nineteenth-century Western art. It was during these fifteen months that van Gogh executed his famous paintings series—wheat fields, sowers, and orchards in bloom. The moving portraits of the Arlésienne Mme Ginoux and of the postman Roulin, his wife ("La Berceuse"), and their family also date from this period, as do the intimate paintings of van Gogh's bedroom in the Yellow House and the study of his wooden chair. A group of self-portraits reflects the artist's changing moods and appearance during these feverish months of work. The volume opens with a prologue comprising five works painted during the months van Gogh worked in Paris prior to his departure for the South. It is followed by five sections that retrace his encounter with the town of Arles, its environs (Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Montmajour, and the Crau), and the people of the region. The chronological format leads the reader through the seasons of the year: the flowering orchards of spring, summer seascapes, autumn gardens. The significance of the two-month period—October to December 1888—during which Paul Gauguin lived and worked with van Gogh is documented by major examples of the work of both artists. The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum reunites for the first time since they left van Gogh's studio in the Yellow House multiple versions of many key subjects. It also brings together related studies and paintings and groups of drawings that the artist sent to his brother Theo in Paris and to his artist-friends Émile Bernard and John Russell.

Near the end of his life, Vincent van Gogh moved from Paris to the city of Arles in southeastern France, where he experienced the most productive period of his artistic career.

This video explores the role of still life and series in Van Gogh’s working practice and highlights the impact of color fading on his artistic aims.