Van Gogh Museum

No other museum holds as much of Vincent van Gogh's work: about 200 paintings, 400 drawings and 700 of his letters. The collection survived because his family kept it. When Vincent died in 1890 his unsold work went to his brother Theo, who died six months later. Theo's widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, then spent decades organising exhibitions, and she did more than anyone to build the painter's reputation. Her son, Vincent Willem, eventually placed the collection in a state-backed foundation, and the museum opened on 2 June 1973 on Amsterdam's Museumplein, between the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk.

The main building is Gerrit Rietveld's design. He died in 1964, before it was built. The permanent collection is arranged by period so you can follow Van Gogh's short career in order: the dark peasant scenes from Nuenen, with The Potato Eaters (1885); the Paris years, when his palette brightened; the burst of colour in Arles, with The Bedroom and a version of Sunflowers; and the last months in Saint-Rémy and Auvers, with Almond Blossoms and Wheatfield with Crows. There are also self-portraits. The letters make the paintings easier to read, because Van Gogh often described a picture to Theo while he was working on it. In 2013 the museum presented Sunset at Montmajour, a canvas that had spent years in a Norwegian attic; a letter to Theo dates it to 4 July 1888.

Other rooms show the artists he learned from, argued with and influenced: Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard, Monet and others, which puts the paintings in context. The oval wing by Kisho Kurokawa, reached through an underground passage, holds the major temporary exhibitions. Twice in its history the museum has been robbed: twenty paintings were taken in 1991 and found in an abandoned car within the hour, and two stolen in 2002 turned up in Italy in 2016.

Getting there

The museum is on Museumplein in Amsterdam-Zuid, a short walk from the canal belt. Trams and the airport express bus 397 stop at Museumplein. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) is about 10 km away, and bus 397 runs directly from the airport to the museum.