Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam that houses the world’s largest collection of paintings and drawings by Vincent Van Gogh, as well as works by his contemporaries.

The museum opened on June 2, 1973. It is located in buildings designed by Gerrit Ritfeld and Kisho Kurokawa. The collection is the largest collection of Van Gogh paintings and drawings in the world, the 2nd most visited museum in the Netherlands and the 31st most visited art museum in the world.

The collection consists of 200 paintings, 400 drawings and 700 letters from the artist. The main collection tells about the different periods of life and work of Vincent Van Gogh. The collection presents many famous paintings, including “Potato Eaters”, “Bedroom in Arles”, one of the three versions of the painting “Sunflowers”. The museum also organizes exhibitions on the history of art of the XIX century.

The museum features famous works of art by Van Gogh’s contemporaries of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements. The museum also has sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Jules Dalow, as well as paintings by Emile Bernard, Maurice Denis, Keys van Dongen, Paul Gauguin, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Georges Serat, Paul Sicjac and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Unsold works by Vincent Van Gogh

After Vincent van Gogh's death in 1890, all his unsold works became the property of his brother Theo. His brother died 6 months after Vincent's death, leaving all the property to his wife Johanna Ghezina van Gogh-Bonger. Johanna continued her husband’s efforts to promote and preserve the works of Vincent van Gogh. The woman, thanks to her friendship with Emile Bernard, was able to organize an exhibition of paintings in museums. It was this woman who played a key role in spreading the creative heritage of Vincent Van Gogh throughout Europe. After Johanna's death, the collection of paintings was inherited by her son Vincent Willem van Gogh in 1925, and eventually lent to the City Museum (Amsterdam). In 1962, the collection was transferred to the state-initiated Vincent Van Gogh Foundation.

The Van Gogh Museum is visited annually by about 2 million people.

In order not to stand in the (sometimes) too long queue at the ticket office, you should buy tickets on the museum website. They can be paid with a credit card and printed at home.