Tate Britain, Exterior
Located on the banks of the River Thames in London's Millbank, Tate Britain is one of the oldest and most popular museums in London. Its collection of British art, comprising over 70,000 works from the 16th Century through the present day, is the most comprehensive in the world.
Tate Britain, Interior
Tate Britain's collection of British art includes works by every major British artist from the past 500 years. This collection makes it a perfect location for the exhibition Van Gogh and Britain, which displays works by van Gogh alongside works by British artists.
Vincent van Gogh, L'Arlésienne, 1890
Oil paint on canvas, 650 x 540 mm. Collection MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art).
Highlights include L'Arlésienne from 1890. Van Gogh produced six versions of L'Arlésienne between November 1888 and February 1890. The portraits depict the landlady of the house where the artist was staying. The 1890 version was given to van Gogh's friend and contemporary Paul Gauguin. Of the painting, Gauguin said that van Gogh had "never worked with so much balance while conserving the sensation and the interior warmth needed for a work of art."
Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night Over The Rhone, 1888
Oil paint on canvas, 725 x 920 mm. Paris, Musée d'Orsay.
Starry Night Over the Rhone is one of van Gogh's most famous paintings. It bears resemblance in both content and form to van Gogh's even more widely renowned painting Starry Night. Both visionary paintings exemplify the artist's ability to depict the sublime in everyday scenes.
Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait of Van Gogh IV, 1957
Oil paint on canvas, 1524 x 1168 mm. Tate.
Francis Bacon was deeply inspired by van Gogh's work and found his early painting The Painter on the Road to Tarrascon particularly haunting. That work, destroyed during WWII and known today only through color reproductions, inspired Bacon to produce a series of studies for a portrait of van Gogh, based on van Gogh's lost depiction of himself walking down a country street, carrying his painting supplies, and followed by a large shadow.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888
Oil paint on canvas, 921 x 730 mm.
Sunflowers is one of van Gogh's most beloved paintings. For this exhibition, London's National Gallery offered the rare loan to Tate Britain, where it is presented alongside other paintings of sunflowers by artists directly inspired by van Gogh's remarkable still life. The chance to view the works in this context is a unique, not-to-miss opportunity.
Frank Brangwyn, Sunflowers, Early 20th Century
Oil paint on board, 755 x 632 mm. Lent by the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
For example, Frank Brangwyn's impressionistic still life of sunflowers bears clear stylistic resemblances to van Gogh's still life. Brangwyn's work, produced several decades after van Gogh's is one of several paintings of sunflowers produced after van Gogh's work on display in the exhibition. Others include Christopher Wood's 1925 painting Yellow Chrysanthemums and Jacob Epstein's 1933 painting Sunflowers.
Tate Britain showcases its comprehensive collection of British art from the past 500 years to demonstrate the mutual influences between British art and the impressionist masterpieces of Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition Van Gogh and Britain presents the largest number of works by van Gogh on display in Britain since 2009. Included in the selection are seminal works including the 1888 masterpiece Sunflowers, one of the most famous paintings in the world, rarely lent by London's National Gallery. The exhibition opens on March 27th at London's Tate Britain.
Van Gogh and Britain is one of Tim Marlow's Must-See Exhibitions opening in March. View all of Tim Marlow's March selections here.