Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries. © Martin Bailey
Snug as a bug: conservation work reveals beetle in Gauguin cat painting
The painting, which has just gone on display at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, was previously hidden away in a private collection for over a century
Van Gogh was not fantasising when he painted mountain landscapes with ‘The Two Holes’
A pair of pictures with this bizarre geological feature have been brought together at London’s National Gallery, on loan from New York
A Van Gogh painting, newly authenticated in an unexpected Polish museum, has gone on display in a church dome
Bought by a British collector, the Dutch landscape was donated to an institution dedicated to Pope John Paul II
Van Gogh’s finest ‘London drawing’ was not done in the UK, but later in Amsterdam
The sketch of Austin Friars Church throws fresh light on Vincent’s draftsmanship, suggesting he was even more of a late developer as an artist
Van Gogh exhibitions coming up in 2025: the global programme revealed
Ambitious shows to open in Boston, Amsterdam, Tokyo...
Four days after finding Van Gogh with a mutilated ear, Gauguin witnessed the guillotining of a murderer
Gauguin then went on to make a ceramic self-portrait with bleeding ears
Van Gogh’s Gordina—the Mona Lisa of Brabant—bought by a Dutch museum for over £7m
We name the London collector who parted with the painting
Van Gogh’s postman: the artist's favourite portrait subject to be explored in Boston and Amsterdam shows
Vincent described his friend as having “a big, bearded face, very Socratic”
Van Gogh Museum exposes three early fakes
A vase of summer sunflowers in a late autumn scene proved a giveaway
'The Lovers': the key painting that the National Gallery couldn't track down for its Van Gogh exhibition
Seized by Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring, the picture disappeared in mysterious circumstances during the Second World War—but could it survive?
Ten surprises at the National Gallery’s five-star Van Gogh exhibition
Visitors will be ‘blown away’ by the masterpieces—but there are intriguing and little-known stories behind many of the loans
Nazi-era claims for two Van Goghs in Switzerland?
Acquired by the arms dealer Emil Bührle, both have been on loan to a Zurich museum
Bucolic Van Gogh riverscape with royal connections set to become the artist’s most expensive Paris work
“Moored Boats”, the “gem in the crown of the Bourbon collection”, will be auctioned in Hong Kong
An exclusive visit to Van Gogh’s asylum garden to track down the scenes that he painted
As Vincent wrote to his brother, “life happens … in the garden, it isn’t so sad”
‘It’s doing real damage’: new book on Van Gogh attacks idea that the artist was a nature painter
The author Michael Lobel argues that Vincent was more focused on industrial pollution
The ‘Mona Lisa of Brabant’: Dutch museum raises €6m towards buying a memorable Van Gogh portrait
At today’s prices, few museums are able to purchase paintings by Vincent—the artist who failed to sell his own work
Van Gogh’s Starry Night is back in Arles, revealing more of its mysteries
Visitors can also go to the spot where he stood his easel, enjoy the riverside view—and see how the artist transformed the scene into one of his best-loved paintings
Kernel of truth: pollen cone stuck in paint reveals where Van Gogh’s Irises grew
His purple flowers have now faded to blue, as revealed during research for a Getty exhibition in October
How drinking too much coffee fuelled Van Gogh’s work
A highly personal still-life painting featuring a pot, milk jug and cups offers an insight into daily life in the Yellow House
How Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom’ paved the way to Modern art
Tate’s show on Expressionism reminds us that Vincent was “the father of us all”
'One of my great heroes': A new book on Francis Bacon sheds light on his admiration for Van Gogh
Bacon believed the Dutch artist deformed reality “to make it more real”
Christie’s will get a record price for a Van Gogh Paris painting, with a garden scene estimated at up to $35m
Fluttering butterflies enliven the greenery, but also remind us of the transience of life
The Nazi collaborator who sheltered nearly 300 Van Gogh works during the war: Sam van Deventer’s story is now told
A new biography reveals that the director of the Kröller-Müller Museum had earlier acquired eight Van Goghs for his personal collection—and he may have sold the finest one to Hitler’s deputy, Hermann Göring
The fate of a Van Gogh flower painting destined for Japan’s 'Sheer Pleasure' pavilion
Kojiro Matsukata’s still life was destroyed in a London fire and his “Van Gogh’s Bedroom” was seized during the Second World War
‘That truly is nature’: the inspiring story behind four spring scenes Van Gogh painted just weeks after mutilating his ear
The optimistic April paintings were produced at an extremely challenging time for the artist
The paint was still wet: a closer look at three Van Gogh paintings heading to the Rijksmuseum
They include an Amsterdam townscape painted an hour or so before the artist visited the newly opened museum in 1885
Four fake Van Gogh self-portraits that publishers put on their book covers
These works deceive readers, giving a false impression about the artist
Did Van Gogh’s brother Theo have syphilis?
It is almost certain, and this could well be a reason behind Vincent’s suicide
Van Gogh’s potatoes: few artists would choose this subject for a still life
Vincent borrowed a casserole from his brother’s kitchen for the painting, which has just been acquired by Rotterdam’s art museum
A Van Gogh self-portrait goes to Wales
An American almost bought the painting for London’s National Gallery in 1924—but it sold to a French buyer and is now coming to the UK on loan