Van Gogh Museum

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum maintains the world’s largest collection of the works of the world’s most popular artist - Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), his paintings, drawings and letters, completed with the art of his contemporaries. Each year, 1.6 million visitors come to the Van Gogh Museum, making it one of the 25 most popular museums in the world.

The collection features the works of Vincent van Gogh – more than 200 painting, 500 drawings but also works of other artists, his contemporaries – Impressionists and Postimpressionists. Van Gogh's work is organized chronologically into five periods, each representing a different period of his life and work: The Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise. The museum made part of its collection accessible on Internet throughGoogle Art Project.

The modern main building was designed by Gerrit Rietveld, completed by his partners after his death (opened in 1973), with later built elliptical exhibition wing by Kisho Kurokawa (opened in 1999).

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Address

Paulus Potterstraat 7, Amsterdam, Netherlands
See all sites in Amsterdam

Details


Category: Museums in Netherlands

More Information

www.vangoghmuseum.nl
en.wikipedia.org
www.amsterdam.info

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Royal Palace of Amsterdam (1,8 km)
Nieuwe Kerk (1,9 km)
Rijksmuseum (0,3 km)
American Hotel (0,6 km)
Oude Kerk (2,1 km)
Beurs van Berlage (2,1 km)
Stedelijk Museum (0,1 km)
Basilica of St. Nicholas (2,4 km)
Anne Frank House (1,9 km)


St. Martin's Cathedral (34 km)
Buurkerk (33,9 km)
Castle de Haar (27,3 km)
Grote Kerk (16,7 km)
Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk (55,6 km)
Burcht van Leiden (34,5 km)
Haarlem City Hall (16,9 km)
St. John's Church (40,3 km)
St. Peter's Church (34 km)

User Reviews

Arron Beckett (10 months ago)
Great museum to visit. Details the life of Van Gogh and the paintings are superb. Good restaurant with lots of healthy choice. Shops on site selling lots of arty stuff. Lots of walking involved but good access for wheelchair users as well. Would recommend.
Jack Longfield (10 months ago)
Much better than I was expecting. The story of his life was interesting as well as moving and the art was excellent. I was happy to find a couple of Monet's within the collection I was not expecting to see. Bit pricey though (€19pp).
Bryony Pimble (10 months ago)
Sadly the sunflowers painting was undergoing conservation when I visited, however the rest of the works on show made up for it. I love the sketches and sketchbooks too. The letters would have been interesting if I could understand the language- but that's my own ignorant fault! Great museum. Really enjoyed it.
Big Ped (11 months ago)
An informative and interesting exhibition. I recommend including the audio description as this elucidates many interesting facts about the paintings and Van Gogh's State of mind during that period. There are hundreds of paintings to see arranged over 3 floors. There is a timeline and narrative connected to the paintings as you proceed upwards to the third and final floor. Clearly described and unpretentious. Well worth a visit.
Tzu-Ya Liao (12 months ago)
Of course, I pretty enjoyed when I attended the museum. As Vincent Van Gogh is my role model while I was in high school which is the time I kept painting. The collections are awesome and the routes, organization in the museum are great, which can let us understanding Van Gogh from the beginning of his painting career to the end. Also we can know about how he painted and who influenced him at different stages. The last things I really surprised was the event holding at the top floor, which asked you to draw the outline(try to copy how Vincent drew). Not everyone did it, but I think it was a great chance to know how great he was, how marvelous works he made.
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Wawel Hill – a Jurassic limestone rock, a dominant feature in the landscape of Kraków, have provided a safe haven for people who have settled here since the Paleolithic Age. It is supposed that the Slav people started living on Wawel hill as early as the 7th century. Early medieval legends tell stories about a dreadful dragon that lived in a cave on Wawel Hill, about his slayer Krakus, and about the latter’s daughter Wanda, who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German knight. Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power.In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Miesco I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslas the Brave (992-1025) and Miesco II (1025-1034) chose Wawel Hill as one of their residences.

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In 1306 the Duke of Kuyavia Ladislas the Short (1306-1333) entered Wawel and was crowned King of Poland in the Cathedral in 1320. It was the first historically recorded coronation of a Polish ruler on Wawel Hill. Around that time, at the initiative of Ladislas the Short, the construction of the third Gothic cathedral began, the castle was expanded and the old wooden and earthen fortifications were replaced by brick ones. The tomb of Ladislas the Short in the cathedral started a royal necropolis of Polish kings in Krakow.The last descendant of the Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great (1333-1370) brought Wawel to a state of unprecedented splendour. In 1364 the expanded gothic castle witnessed the marriage of Casimir’s granddaughter Elizabeth to Charles IV accompanied by a famous convention of kings and princes, subsequently entertained by a rich burgher Wierzynek. The accession to the throne in 1385 of Jadwiga from the Hungarian dynasty of Andegavens, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Ladislas Jagiello (1386-1434) started another era of prosperity for Wawel. The royal court employed local and western European artists and also Rus painters. During the reign of Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492) the silhouette of the hill was enriched by three high brick towers: the Thieves’ Tower, the Sandomierz Tower and the Senatorial Tower. The first humanists in Poland and tutors to the king’s sons: historian Jan Długosz and an Italian by the name Filippo Buonacorsi (also known as Callimachus) worked there at that time.

The Italian Renaissance arrived at Wawel in the early 16th century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) commissioned the construction of a new palace in place of the Gothic residence, with an impressive large courtyard with arcaded galleries which was completed about 1540. Sigismund’s patronage also left an indelible impression in the cathedral, where a family chapel was erected, known today as Sigismund’s Chapel - the work of Bartolomeo of Berrecci Florence, and through various foundations, one of which was that of a large bell, called the Sigismund to commemorate the king. Close artistic and cultural relations with Italy were strengthened in 1518 by the king’s marriage to Bona Sforza. Alongside Italian artists, German architects, wood workers, painters and metal smiths worked for the king. The last descendant of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), enriched the castle’s interiors with a magnificent collection of tapestries woven in Brussels. In the “Golden Age” of Polish culture Wawel became one of the main centres of humanism in Europe.

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