Cultural Dessert

Van Gogh Self Portraits

21 April 2022

When we visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in October 2019, rather than just following everyone into the first room on the ground floor, we thought we would try to beat the crowds by starting on the top floor and working our way down. Unfortunately this wonderful gallery, devoted solely to the life of Vincent Van Gogh, tells his story chronologically, starting with his birth. We managed to start our visit (spoiler!) with his suicide and bizarrely then followed his progress as a painter backwards! Despite this we really enjoyed the museum - and would highly recommend a visit. Last Friday we were at the newly refurbished Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House in London to see the Van Gogh Self Portraits exhibition. In total Van Gogh painted 35 self portraits: this exhibition has assembled 16 of them, including some of the most well known. It’s a small exhibition, but that allows you to spend plenty of time with each picture. And because it is the same face featured in each portrait, the contrast in styles and techniques feels even more fascinating. It’s a lovely exhibition, and it was also great to visit the Courtauld’s permanent collection and to see the beautifully restored rooms which only reopened last November.

Labels: Exhibitions, VisualArt

posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:55 pm