September 14, 2024
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers — The National Gallery's First-Ever Solo Show for Vincent
More than a century after it bought his Sunflowers, the National Gallery finally gave Vincent van Gogh a show of his own — and it sold out in waves.
It seems impossible, but it was true: until autumn 2024, the National Gallery had never devoted a whole exhibition to Vincent van Gogh. 'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' put that right in spectacular fashion, gathering more than 50 works from museums and private collections around the world.
The show zeroed in on the feverish final chapter of Van Gogh's life — the 27 months he spent in Provence, in Arles and the asylum at Saint-Rémy, where he produced his most beloved canvases. Its curious title borrows the painter's own pet names for two of his sitters, 'the poet' and 'the lover', and traces how he turned real places and people into something dreamed and symbolic.
Timed to the Gallery's bicentenary, the exhibition also marked 100 years since it acquired 'Sunflowers' and 'Van Gogh's Chair' in 1924. Tickets vanished fast and the rooms stayed packed until January 2025 — proof, if any were needed, that the man who barely sold a painting in his lifetime now fills galleries like no one else.
Image: “Vincent van Gogh - Wheat Field with Cypresses (National Gallery version)” — Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.