VAN GOGH MUSEUM, Introduction

Hi, my name’s Jill, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Van Gogh Museum.

The Museum, dedicated entirely to Vincent Van Gogh, is one of the best-loved and most frequently visited in Amsterdam, drawing over one and a half million people every year. On display are some 200 paintings and 500 drawings by the great, ill-fated Dutch painter, together with letters by the artist and rare photographs, as well a collection of the Japanese prints that Van Gogh so loved.  Visitors can also admire a selection of works by his contemporaries, such as Corot, Pissarro, Millet, Manet, Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The museum is housed in two adjacent buildings. The main building, in rigorous Rationalist style, was designed by Gerrit Rietveld and opened to the public in 1973. An underground passageway, with access to an auditorium and other services, links it with an elliptical-shaped building designed by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, officially opened in 1999 and used mostly for temporary exhibitions....