The Van Gogh Gallery Blog

Van Gogh’s paintings can be seen in museums and galleries all over the world, and while there really is no comparison for seeing his brushstrokes up close and in person, it is amazing how many excellent virtual Van Gogh displays exist online. Virtual tours have improved over the years now offering the viewer an ever greater perspective of the object and its surroundings. In this virtual tour of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, you can see many of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and the works hanging alongside of them all from the comfort of your computer. If you prefer to travel online to Paris a virtual tour of the Musee d’Orsay will take you the Van Gogh collection there.

If you would rather avoid the sometimes dizzying effects of the virtual tour, check out some of the interactive exhibitions online such as the “Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night” exhibition which took place a couple of years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but continues to display online. There are also a selection of videos on Van Gogh’s works and research on the Van Gogh channel on Art Babble. So if you want to experience the works of Van Gogh, but can’t make it to the museum, a Van Gogh tour may just be a click away.

Now is the perfect time to start planning your Van Gogh tour for next spring or summer.  There are many tour companies which offer bike tours of Van Gogh country in France and The Netherlands.  You can also rent bikes and plan your own tour in the steps of Van Gogh.  If cycling is not for you, many of the historic Van Gogh sites are easily accessible on foot or by car.  Catch dinner in Van Gogh’s last home at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise, see the Irises outside of the Saint Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, or sip coffee at the Café Terrace on the Place du Forum (pictured on the left), now named Café Van Gogh, in Arles.  Explore the beautiful countryside, and take in the historic sites that have been captured in some of Van Gogh’s most famous works.  Have you already toured the Van Gogh sites in Europe?  Comment and share your experiences or become a fan of Van Gogh Gallery on Facebook and share your Van Gogh tour photos with us.

Related Articles:

Van Gogh Goes Home

On the Road with Vincent

Bike Tours in France: Loire, Provence, Burgundy

One of our visitors recently told me about the world’s first Van Gogh musical which just opened this summer. Produced by COA Productions, Van Gogh and the Sunflower Boy is a musical adaptation of Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt. This production focuses on Van Gogh’s time spent in Arles and many of the people he met during that time. Van Gogh and the Sunflower Boy is currently being performed for the next couple of months in Seoul, Korea before touring China and Japan.  Read more from Laurence Anholt himself on this production or if you read Korean more information can also be found here.

I recently came across Vincent has Arrived, a website with a series of posts from the art blog Dali House. While Dali House, named for Salvador Dali, and has a wealth of information surrounding the artist, it is also a great reference for information on lots of other artists including Vincent van Gogh. It was in a post on Dali House where I first read about the website Vincent has Arrived which chronicles the places Van Gogh lived and the things he did in during the last 30 months of his life. It is fascinating to see the satellite images of Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise on this site which highlight some of the places Van Gogh lived and frequented that are still around today. It is interesting to see what has changed in 120 years and even more interesting to see what has not. If you would like more information about some of these places that you can still visit today, the Van Gogh Gallery’s In His Steps section has contact information for many of these famous spots.

In Stockton, CA Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows is being reinvented on a cow-shaped canvas.  The life-sized cow sculpture is one of the entries in Lucerne’s 3rd annual Art of Dairy Art Contest.  Sixteen year old Cynthia Mora, a Junior at Weber Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, used one of Van Gogh’s most famous works as her inspiration for the contest entry.  Although this is not the first time Van Gogh’s work has been reimagined, it may be the first time his style has been copied onto a life-sized fiberglass cow.  To see more unique works inspired by Van Gogh read more about Van Gogh in today’s culture.