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 will range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries. © Martin Bailey

'Closer to Vincent': the secrets of everyday objects in Van Gogh’s paintings

A book and exhibition will reveal surprising facts about some of the artist’s best-loved motifs

a blog by Martin Bailey

New research sheds light on Van Gogh’s problems with Gauguin, as revealed by the paintings of their favourite chairs

And why was “Vincent’s Chair” sold to London’s National Gallery in the 1920s, while “Gauguin’s Chair” was hidden away?

a blog by Martin Bailey

Why did Van Gogh fail to sell his work?

Although his paintings now fetch millions, during his lifetime he perhaps ended up pricing them too high

The Marcos art mystery: with a new Philippines president, we ask what happened to the family's Van Gogh?

Ferdinand Marcos, the former president, and his wife Imelda owned one of Vincent’s peasant scenes. Did it end up in Japan?

a blog by Martin Bailey

Could one of these lost Van Goghs—which disappeared during the Nazi period—be hidden in your attic?

These five missing paintings might still survive—possibly looted and secreted away

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A rare Van Gogh letter about the Sunflowers will go on display

Vincent’s note to his artist friend Emile Bernard is to be included in an exhibition of the Springer Collection at Madrid’s Thyssen Museum

a blog by Martin Bailey

The ten most expensive Vincent van Gogh paintings

Of course Sunflowers is included, along with some surprises—and another on the way

a blog by Martin Bailey

New research aims to solve the two mysteries of Van Gogh’s landscape of poplars

Why did Vincent paint “Poplars near Nuenen” on top of an earlier picture of a church? And was the final picture touched up after he discovered Impressionism in Paris?

a blog by Martin Bailey

First details on the largest US exhibition of Van Gogh paintings for a generation

The show “Van Gogh in America” opens at the Detroit Institute of Arts in October

a blog by Martin Bailey

A Van Gogh letter is coming up for auction: €250,000 for a single sheet of paper

Vincent writes philosophically about his mental illness, a year after mutilating his ear

a blog by Martin Bailey

Discovered: Van Gogh’s fingerprint on an olive grove painting

The artist’s imprint was probably left when he carried the picture back to the asylum

Sunflowers: the symbol of Van Gogh—and Ukraine

Vincent’s beloved bloom will eventually flourish again in the war-torn country

a blog by Martin Bailey

The London dealer who sacked his young assistant Van Gogh went on to sell his art

Christie’s uncovers records revealing that Obach & Co marketed a landscape drawing in 1910

A blog by Martin Bailey

Revealed: Van Gogh landscape once owned by Yves Saint Laurent coming up for sale, valued at $45m

Christie’s is to offer the never-exhibited painting in a New York auction in May

a blog by Martin Bailey

We know Van Gogh’s face from his self-portraits, but how did his friends see him?

Other views of Vincent, captured by his fellow artists, reproduced together online for the first time

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh’s depiction of two lovers—sliced out of a landscape painting—comes up for sale

Sotheby’s will auction the surviving picture of the strolling couple on 2 March, estimated at £7m-£10m

a blog by Martin Bailey

How did the only painting sold by Van Gogh in his lifetime end up in Russia?

Revelations about The Red Vineyard, just conserved at Moscow’s Pushkin Museum

a blog by Martin Bailey

London's Van Gogh self-portraits show is coming—here are my six favourite paintings

The Courtauld exhibition will be the first ever with works from Vincent’s full career, opening on 3 February

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The mind-blowing Van Gogh gallery that never was

What happened to the 1923 plan for a Grand Museum to house the collection of Helene Kröller-Müller

New York’s Metropolitan Museum buys four extremely rare Van Gogh prints

Vincent wanted to sell the set for under a dollar as “art for the people”—the museum will have paid several million

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh back on the road: major exhibitions coming in 2022

With shows in London, Vienna, four American cities and of course Amsterdam—I choose the highlight of the year

a blog by Martin Bailey

What a year for Van Gogh: surprise discoveries, record prices and a boom in immersive experiences

From insects trapped in paint and Vincent's support of a brass band to the scene depicted in his final picture—plus it was suicide (not murder)

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh gets a facelift: conservation of self-portrait to be revealed in London

The Kröller-Müller Museum painting will be unveiled in the Courtauld Gallery’s exhibition

a blog by Martin Bailey

The secret behind Van Gogh’s satirical herring still life: they represent policemen

Vincent told his artist friend Paul Signac that the fish stood for the gendarmes who hassled him after he mutilated his ear

A blog by Martin Bailey

Revealed: Larry Ellison, the world’s seventh richest person, has collected at least four Van Goghs

The Oracle Corporation co-founder owns the painting that hung above J.F. Kennedy’s hotel bed on the morning of his assassination—and the president’s final telephone call was about Van Gogh

A blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh and friends: new show in Ohio puts Vincent alongside masters such as Rembrandt, Hokusai and Monet

But is it one exhibition or two? Surprisingly, Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources will be quite different when it travels next year to California

a blog by Martin Bailey

Four Van Goghs go for $161m in one evening in New York—double their Christie’s estimates

For the artist who failed to sell during his lifetime, there is now a surge in the market for Vincent’s late paintings