The Potato Eaters 1885

In 1885, while he was just starting out as an artist, Van Gogh finished painting The Potato Eaters in Nuenen. Instead of having the family pose for the painting, he wanted to capture them enjoying lunch in their natural environment. Van Gogh painstakingly prepared this painting with the intention of displaying it in the Paris Salon. The Salon, however, rejected it, and throughout Van Gogh’s lifetime, the painting did not find success.

Considered one of Van Gogh’s most revered works of art today, The Potato Eaters is on display in the Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum.

Sunflowers, 1888

Two still life painting series by Vincent van Gogh are named Sunflowers. Van Gogh painted his first collection of Sunflowers in Paris in 1887. He painted the second series in 1888 while residing in Arles, Provence.

In order to greet his friend and fellow impressionist Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh painted a second series of Sunflowers. Since Gauguin was going to be working alongside Van Gogh in Arles, he intended to use these works to adorn his guest’s bedroom. They did collaborate on several really productive weeks of painting.

In order to create depth and substance in these works, Van Gogh used gorgeous, brilliant colors and thick paint.

Van Gogh’s beautiful Sunflower paintings are on view at the following art museums around the world:

• The National Gallery, London
• Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam
• Kroller Museum, The Netherlands
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Cafe Terrace at Night, 1888

Cafe Terrace at Night is one of the first paintings that Van Gogh created when he came to Arles. The café in Arles still exists today and is renamed the Van Gogh Cafe. For lovers of Van Gogh, it is a significant tourist destination.

This painting is one of the most recognizable and referenced pieces of art. Its fame and popularity rival those of two other creations of Van Gogh’s –   Starry Night and Sunflowers.

In order to paint this picture, Van Gogh set up his easel outside in the evening. He adopted this technique from the impressionists in Paris. However, he didn’t paint the sight exactly as he saw it; instead, he utilized to color and brushstrokes to convey his feelings. Van Gogh captures joy and exhilaration in this painting.

Cafe Terrace at Night is hanging on the walls of the Kröller-Muller Museum in the Netherlands.

The Bedroom, 1888

Three different depictions of this scenario by Van Gogh are titled The Bedroom. These pictures show Van Gogh’s plain bedroom at Arles’ Yellow House.

Van Gogh purposefully chose not to use the principles of perspective in this scenario. He intended for this painting to have a “flattened” appearance that would make it resemble a Japanese print.

The three paintings of the Bedroom are owned by the following art museums:

• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• Art Institute of Chicago
• Musee D’Orsay, Paris

Starry Night 1889

While he was a patient in the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Van Gogh created this well-known work. Van Gogh had more freedom than the majority of the other patients, despite the subpar conditions. Van Gogh had a spare room to use as a studio and was free to tour the asylum gardens.

After suffering a serious mental breakdown and feeling suicidal and despondent, the artist painted this work of art. The sky’s whirls are a reflection of his internal turmoil. His gloomy attitude is expressed through the use of darker hues. The views of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence that Van Gogh witnessed from his bedroom window are shown in this tableau. It is, however, an irrational and sentimental interpretation of this viewpoint.

This most famous Van Gogh painting is hanging on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.