5 Paintings by Vincent van Gogh That Are Even Better in Person

Few artists have recorded their own life as graphically as Vincent van Gogh. In the last five years of his life, he produced more than 40 self-portraits. This one, as the bandage confirms, was painted shortly after his breakdown. In 1888, he moved to Arles, France, and invited Paul Gauguin to join him. Unfortunately, Gauguin’s arrogance and van Gogh’s fragile mental state proved a disastrous combination, and Gauguin fled. In despair, the Dutchman sliced off his left earlobe and sent it to a local prostitute. The artist painted two striking self-portraits, showing the extent of his injury. His main intention was to reassure his brother, and it is significant that, in this painting, van Gogh included a Japanese print of Mount Fuji in the background. He was passionately fond of these colorful images, which exerted a strong influence on his own style, and he wanted to show that his optimism was returning. This painting is in the collection of the Courtauld Gallery in London. (Iain Zaczek)

Vincent van Gogh did the first version of this painting in the autumn of 1888, during one of the happiest interludes in his life. He believed that his move to Arles would mark a new chapter in his art. He asked his brother, Theo, to persuade Paul Gauguin to come and join him, and he rapidly painted a series of pictures to hang on the walls and create a welcoming atmosphere for his new guest. To a large extent, these paintings were designed simply as decorations for the house, but van Gogh also wanted to show that his own works could bear comparison with those of Gauguin’s, whose talent he was in awe of. In The Bedroom at Arles, many of the items are shown in pairs—two chairs, two pillows, two pairs of pictures—signaling his expectation of companionship. Yet his friendship with Gauguin turned sour just two months after his arrival and van Gogh had a mental breakdown. Recuperating in an asylum in St. Rémy, he painted a third version of the painting, for his mother. (It is in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.) Although structurally very similar to the first two, certain details are significantly different. In the first version, van Gogh painted the floor a rosy pink; here it is a brownish-gray color, reflecting his more depressed mood. The two top right-hand paintings are different in each version as well. In the first two versions, the portraits are indistinct and cut off. In this version, though, they are very much discernible—the one on the left is van Gogh himself and the one on the right is of his sister, Wil. Ten months after he painted it, van Gogh committed suicide. (Iain Zaczek)

Vincent van Gogh painted a series of sunflower paintings to decorate the “Yellow House” in Arles, France, which he hoped to share with Paul Gauguin. The one titled, simply, Sunflowers that is owned by the National Gallery in London is the most famous of the series and one of the most famous pictures in the world. The flowers are set against a flat, butter-yellow background, separated from the darker ocher of the table top by a sketchily drawn blue line. The interplay between the color and lines of the table top, wall, and two-tone vase binds the surface of the painting together; it echoes the design of Japanese prints. The angular yellow petals are thickly painted with great energy, while jabbing dabs of paint create the grainy texture of the deeper orange seedheads. Unlike the Impressionists, van Gogh was not trying to reproduce what he saw, but he wanted to “use color more arbitrarily, so as to express myself with more force.” (Jude Welton)

This painting dates from a pivotal point in Vincent van Gogh’s brief life. Artistically, he had reached his peak, producing pictures that were radically different from those of his contemporaries. His fragile health, however, had started to fail him. Following a breakdown in December 1888, he was admitted to the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in St. Rémy. During his lengthy period of recuperation, van Gogh began painting olive trees. In all, he produced 14 canvases on this subject between the summer of 1889 and the following spring, including this harvest-time scene (which is in a private collection). Van Gogh liked to express his emotions through natural forms, and the olive trees proved an ideal vehicle for conveying his personal anguish. The gnarled, twisting branches of the trees reminded him of human arms, outstretched and yearning; the artist’s agitated but controlled brushstrokes conveying a calm cry for help. In addition, there were the biblical associations. For van Gogh, who had been a lay preacher in his youth, they were inextricably linked with Christ’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives. The biblical link was in the forefront of van Gogh’s mind, because in 1889 Gauguin painted a version of Christ in the Garden of Olives in which he replaced Christ’s features with his own. Van Gogh admired the concept, but he was never comfortable with the idea of producing imaginary scenes himself. He preferred to give “an expression of anguish without aiming at the historic Garden of Gethsemane.” (Iain Zaczek)

This is one of Vincent van Gogh’s final pictures. It was painted in Auvers in July 1890, shortly before his suicide. According to some reports, it is actually the same field where the artist shot himself. In a brief note about the scene, van Gogh said: “Returning there, I set to work. The brush almost fell from my hands…I had no difficulty in expressing sadness and extreme solitude.” Echoes of the artist’s despair are plainly evident in the painting. Elements of the natural world, which he had so often celebrated joyously in his art, have now taken on a threatening tone. The overripe corn does not sway gently; it pulsates, almost like a raging fire. Above, the sky darkens and huge black crows, reduced to simple stabs of paint, advance toward the viewer, like portents of death. Even the structure of the picture is unsettling. Instead of converging toward the horizon, the composition is pulled toward the foreground by three rough paths. The two at the side disappear off the canvas, while the central one ends abruptly. The spectator, like the artist, feels hemmed in. During his final years, van Gogh worked at phenomenal speed, sometimes completing one or two pictures in a day. He worked right through the hottest part of the afternoon, and there is a theory that his illness was brought on by sunstroke. This frenetic activity is clearly visible in the finished works. Van Gogh applied his paint very thickly, making no attempt to smooth out the surface or blend his colors carefully. This is what gives his paintings such a sense of intense and vibrant energy. Wheat Field with Crows is part of the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. (Iain Zaczek)