Vincent van Gogh [antikvár]

A MUSEUM FOR VAN GOGHThe Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam attracts more than 1 millión visitors every year from all over the world. It is hard to imagine that lack of interest in Vincent van Gogh's art during his lifetime drove the artist to the brink of despair. The mythical stature that Van Gogh has subsequently acquired in the eyes of so many people, the reverence in which his work is held and the millions who have read his letters, all contrast dramatically with Van Gogh's life and expectations.His career as an artist lasted ten years, a relatively short period during which he produced somé 1100 drawings and almost 900 paintings. By far the most important and diverse group of Van Gogh's works is to be found in the Van Gogh Museum. The core of the museum's collection is förmed by the works owned by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, comprising all the pieces formerly in the artist's family collection. This core collection consists of 200 paintings, almost 500 drawings, four sketchbooks and somé 800 letters written by Vincent van Gogh, plus the priváté art collection assembled by Vincent and his brother Theo, comprising 570 Japanese prints, 1500 journal illustrations and works by artist friends, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat. Since the Van Gogh Museum first opened its doors Vincent and Theo's collection, which the brothers accumulated by purchasing or exchanging works, has served as a starting point for the museum's own collecting policy which focuses on expan-ding its collection through the acquisition of 19th-century art connected with Van Gogh and his period.Over the past decades an ambition programme of collecting and exhibiting has made the Van Gogh Museum what it is today: a treasury of Van Gogh's finest works and a leading centre for Van Gogh-related expertise, where correspondence and family documents are stored and studied, presented and explained from constantly new perspectives. It is alsó a museum of the 19th century, with a varied and engaging programme of exhibitions about the period in which Van Gogh lived, and the art associated with him.