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

In a moving letter, Van Gogh complains about quarantine after his forced removal from the Yellow House

New exhibition at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum is a unique opportunity to see Vincent’s correspondence, normally locked away in a vault

a blog by Martin Bailey

Coveted Van Gogh bouquet to be sold at Sotheby's New York, valued at $18m

Chequered past: from the Bear Skin to the Nazis, a once-restituted painting is now coming up for auction

a blog by Martin Bailey

The most famous bedroom in art history: secrets of Van Gogh’s nocturnal life

A story of changing wall colours, a pair of pillows, wartime bombs and the hunt for a lost bed

a blog by Martin Bailey

Gauguin and Van Gogh: their shared love of Japan revealed

“Beautiful women” in Gauguin’s rediscovered manuscript are now identified as by Kunisada—Vincent’s favourite Japanese printmaker

a blog by Martin Bailey

Gauguin claims credit for Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: the revelations of a rediscovered manuscript

In Avant et Après—just acquired by London's Courtauld Gallery—Gauguin details his tumultuous time with Van Gogh

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh exhibitions return—exclusive news all the way up to 2024

From olive groves to peat moors: shows coming up in Dallas, Amsterdam, Detroit, Vienna, Assen, Columbus and Santa Barbara

a blog by Martin Bailey

Which is the only museum in the world actively buying up Van Goghs? It’s in the hometown of Hieronymus Bosch

The Noordbrabants Museum’s latest acquisition is Head of a Woman, bought privately for €1.6m through Christie’s

A blog by Martin Bailey

Art for the People: how a Van Gogh masterpiece ended up in an English village hall

In 1935 Samuel Courtauld lent Peach Blossoms to bring major paintings to the countryside—an inspiration for today

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh held hostage: private detective tells us he has more photographs

Will Arthur Brand’s images of the stolen painting lead to a recovery?

a blog by Martin Bailey

Only joint letter from Van Gogh and Gauguin—recording their brothel visits—comes up for sale

Vincent describes his artist friend as having the “instincts of a wild beast”

a blog by Martin Bailey

Now stuck in Japanese lockdown, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers will not return to UK until next summer

Londoners will have to wait even longer to see the National Gallery’s 60 touring masterpieces

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Executed by the Nazis: the story of Vincent van Gogh’s brave great-nephew

This month the Van Gogh family pays tribute to Theodoor, the 24-year-old student who faced a firing squad in 1945

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh Museum to reopen on 1 June, but with only a tenth of its usual visitors

Closure is having a catastrophic impact on the finances of the museum, which normally gets half its income from ticket sales

a blog by Martin Bailey

The astonishing tales of how the Sunflowers survived the Second World War

To mark VE Day, we investigate the fate of Van Gogh’s masterpieces under Hitler and Churchill

a blog by Martin Bailey

Home sweet home: renting the Yellow House, the high point of Van Gogh’s life

Vincent’s sunny abode had a spare bedroom, awaiting Gauguin’s arrival

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh experienced lockdown—how did isolation impact on his art?

The artist once told his sister that isolation was “sometimes as hard to bear as exile”—but was necessary “if we want to work”

a blog by Martin Bailey

Did Van Gogh cut off his whole ear? Or only a part?

Key witnesses had different memories, so sorting out myth and reality is a challenge—but the truth would give valuable insight into the artist’s psyche

a blog by Martin Bailey

A concise guide to Van Gogh’s adult life: how the artist celebrated his birthday over the years

From family gifts of cufflinks and chocolate to his darker days in the asylum, a look at where Vincent was and what he was doing on 30 March each year

a blog by Martin Bailey

In recent decades 28 Van Goghs have been stolen in the Netherlands—but all have been recovered

Detectives are intensifying their investigation into the latest crime, at Laren’s Singer museum, which was committed this week on the artist’s birthday

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh’s trusty pipe: how the artist believed that smoking helped his art

Vincent lay in bed, puffing away and dreamily composing his pictures

a blog by Martin Bailey

Van Gogh’s theory on Degas’s success with female nudes

A three-volume set of The Letters of Edgar Degas—including ten with references to the Van Gogh brothers—is due to be published in April

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Tacita Dean’s ancestors brought a Van Gogh painting to England in 1896—now she wants to track it down

The UK artist is on the hunt for the Parisian restaurant scene, now with a secretive Texan collector

a blog by Martin Bailey

Great lovers of Van Gogh: Swiss couple's private collection goes on show in Vienna

The Albertina mounts a display of the Hahnlosers' relatively unknown treasures

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A Van Gogh and a Monet: you win one and lose another

The Dutchman’s newly attributed Oslo self-portrait is unveiled in an Amsterdam exhibition, while the Frenchman’s bohemian portrait suffers a downgrading

a blog by Martin Bailey

Kirk Douglas played Van Gogh in 1950s film Lust for Life: a look at the biopic and the myths it made

The Hollywood star, who died last week aged 103, became famous for his portrayal of the "tortured artist"

a blog by Martin Bailey

The €15m Van Gogh which was once sold in a farmyard auction for just £4

Now heading to Maastricht, the painting of a peasant cottage will be a highlight of the Tefaf fair

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Wooing Dutch visitors and an impending birthday: the challenges facing Van Gogh Museum's new director

Emilie Gordenker, from the Mauritshuis, will move from the Golden Age to the birth of Modernism when she takes up her role next week

a blog by Martin Bailey