Page 22 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2016 - Amsterdam

20 ❯❯ Top 10 Amsterdam Highlights

Van Gogh Museum

The most comprehensive collection in the world of Van Gogh’s
work was amassed by his art dealer brother Theo, and is housed
in this museum. It includes more than 200 of his paintings, over
500 drawings and hundreds of letters, as well as works by his
contemporaries – though not all are on display. The display in
Gerrit Reitveld’s stunning 1973 building works thematically
through Van Gogh’s life, his struggles and development as an
artist and how he influenced, and was influenced by, other artists.

The Bedroom 1
The mastery of this
painting (1888) lies in the
simplicity of the subject
and the subtly alternating
blocks of colour (right).
Van Gogh was so happy
with the result he made
two copies.
Almond
2
Blossom
Van Gogh made this
picture of white almond
blossom against a blue
sky for his new nephew,
born in January 1890 and
named after him. A Pair of Fishing Boats
Shoes
The Reaper
on the Beach
3 5 6
Van Gogh gives character at Les Saintes-
While undergoing
treatment in Saint-Rémy, to a pair of worn boots in Maries-de-la-Mer
Van Gogh found solace one of the first paintings A trip to the sea in
painting people who after his move to Paris 1888 produced these
worked the land. He (1886). The dark palette colourful, stylized boats.
painted three versions harks back to his Look closely and you will
of The Reaper (1889). Nuenen work. see grains of sand,
blown on to the canvas
and fixed there forever
as the paint dried.
The Potato
7
Eaters
The culmination of his
years in Nuenen, this
was Van Gogh’s first
major composition
(1885). He wanted to
Wheatfield with Crows
4 portray the peasants
realistically, not to
One of the panoramic landscapes that Van
Gogh painted in 1890, during the last days of his life, glamorize them, but
this famous picture with its dead-end track and the painting was not
menacing, crow-filled sky, perhaps reveals his the critical success
tortured state of mind (above). he had hoped for.

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