Discover More: The Met’s Collection of Van Gogh Paintings

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Discover More: The Met’s Collection of Van Gogh Paintings

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fireplace, 1885, oil on canvas.
    Painted at the beginning of Van Gogh's career, Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fireplace, 1885 was created in Nuenen, Holland. The dark, greenish tones and rural subject matter are characteristic of the artist’s early work.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    The Potato Peeler, 1885, oil on canvas.
    Painted during February or March in 1885, the grey and brown tones are simultaneously reminiscent of wintertime and the artist’s early style. The artwork was completed in Nuenen, Holland, before the artist left his home country to study art in Paris. Van Gogh painted Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, 1887 on the canvas’s reverse while working later in Paris.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Self Portrait with a Straw Hat, 1887, oil on canvas.
    The artist painted more than twenty self-portraits while studying his craft in Paris between 1886 and 1888. By examining his own image, Van Gogh developed his distinctive style. No longer evocative of his early artworks, Van Gogh portrays himself in a multitude of visible brushstrokes highlighted with pastel colors.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Sunflowers, 1887, oil on canvas.
    In the summer of 1887, Van Gogh painted four sunflower still lifes during his time in Paris. With Sunflowers, 1887, the artist brings attention to both the front and back of the brightly painted flower while simultaneously emphasizing the expressive, deep blue background.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    The Flowering Orchard, 1888, oil on canvas.
    Subsequent to his time in Paris, Van Gogh moved to Arles, France, arriving during the spring, as seen in The Flowering Orchard. This painting is one of fourteen artworks marking the bright, lively season as seen through Van Gogh’s eyes.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Oleanders, 1888, oil on canvas.
    Created during his time in Arles, the abundant and voluminous oleanders pour out of the decorative vase in Oleanders, 1888. The flowers are placed adjacent to the French author Émile Zola’s novel “La joie de vivre” or “the joy of life.”
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Madame Roulin and Her Baby, 1888, oil on canvas.
    Madame Roulin and Her Baby, 1888 is one artwork of a series of paintings focusing on the Roulin family. Joseph Roulin, the local postman, was a frequent subject of Van Gogh's as well as Madame Roulin and their infant daughter portrayed above, Marcelle.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Shoes, 1888, oil on canvas.
    Van Gogh previously created several paintings of shoes in Paris. In Shoes, 1888, Van Gogh returned to the subject in Arles, painting the worn shoes against a red tile floor. The distinctive and gestural brushstrokes flanking the right shoe adds a dynamic quality to the still life.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    L’Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux, 1888-89, oil on canvas.
    Marie Ginoux, or Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux is seated in her business, Café de la Gare. Posed by Van Gogh to be reading a book and wearing traditional clothes from Arles, the sitter appears to be accustomed to the café scenery.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Olive Trees, 1889, oil on canvas.
    Completed the month of November in 1889, Arles, Van Gogh’s pointillist brushstrokes are evocative of the neoimpressionist artistic style. The dotted yet curved brushstrokes accentuate the lush branches and characteristically twisted trunk of an olive tree.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Women Picking Olives, 1889, oil on canvas.
    There are three existing versions of Women Picking Olives. The above piece, a landscape of an olive grove, Van Gogh painted to gift to his mother and sister.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    La Berceuse, 1889, oil on canvas.
    Pictured above is Madame Roulin and although she is not painted with her infant daughter, Van Gogh titled the artwork La Berceuse, meaning “lullaby or women who rocks the cradle.” Madame Roulin is seen to be holding a rope as she sits for her portrait, possibly attached to Marcelle’s cradle.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Cypresses, 1889, oil on canvas.
    Painted in June 1889, Cypresses marks Van Gogh’s yearlong stay in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France. The towering tree is depicted in the artist’s distinctive style, as he utilizes gestural, curving brushstrokes to suggest a dynamic quality present in the landscape.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889, oil on canvas.
    In Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889, Van Gogh provides an additional perspective of his beloved cypress trees. The artist devoted the summer of 1889 to creating representations of the domineering trees and their surroundings.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    First Steps, After Millet, 1890, oil on canvas.
    During the fall and winter of his stay in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh took to painting copies of Jean-François Millet paintings, an artist he greatly admired. Reminiscent of the rural imagery depicted earlier in his career, this painting is one of twenty-one.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Irises, 1890, oil on canvas.
    Before he left the asylum at Saint-Rémy, and preceding his death in 1890, Van Gogh painted four bouquets of lively spring flowers. This series included artworks of two iris and two rose bouquets. In Irises, 1890, the colors are softer than his earlier paintings and the brushstrokes more refined.
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  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art
    Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, 1890, oil on canvas.
    Vincent Van Gogh passed away on July 29, 1890. Before his death, the artist painted numerous canvases of blooming flowers, such as in Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase. The multicolored background of the artwork swirls around the tactile, lively flowers in the foreground.
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