There’s Nothing like the Real Thing: Van Gogh at the Cleveland Museum of Art

This special installation of three works by Vincent van Gogh is intended to provide visitors with direct experience of the artist’s actual paintings and graphic art to coincide with the Immersive Van Gogh experience of video and sound projections. Although largely unrecognized and commercially unsuccessful during his lifetime, Van Gogh gained critical recognition after his death and became one of the most influential painters in the history of art. Born in the Netherlands, Van Gogh decided to become an artist at the age of 27. He moved to Paris in 1886 and produced many of his mature works while living in southern France. He also suffered intermittent psychotic breakdowns and was interned at an asylum near Saint-Rémy in 1889. Perfectly lucid between attacks, he continued painting and spent three months working at Auvers-sur-Oise before committing suicide at age 37. This new installation at the CMA features two masterworks painted in southern France and Van Gogh’s etching of Dr. Gachet, the physician who cared for the artist during the last months of his life. The installation is free to the public and on view in the Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Gallery (222).