World – On May 20, 1890 Vincent Van Gogh he arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise and only two months later, on July 29, he died at the age of only 37, killed by a shot from a revolver.
Yet, despite the fleeting stay in the picturesque village in the heart of the Oise valley, the painter experienced an intense artistic activity.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Orsay Museum recall the last two months of Vincent’s life with a double date. The exhibition titled Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise. Les derniers mois will be in the capital of the Netherlands from 12 May to 3 September 2023, to fly to Paris from 3 October 2023 to 4 February 2024.

Vincent Van Gogh, Farm with figures, Auvers -sur -Oise, May-June 1890, Oil on canvas, 46.4 x 38.9 cm, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) | Photo: © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

The exhibition, the first ever dedicated to the works created by the artist in the last two months of his life, during his stay in Auvers-sur-Oise, is the culmination of years of research dedicated to this crucial phase in the existence of the master of sunflowers. Put to the test by the constant crises suffered in Arles and then in the asylum of Saint-Rémy, Vincent approaches Paris and his brother Theo, married at the time and father of little Vincent, in search of a new creative impulse.
The choice of Auvers was strongly influenced by the presence in the village of Dr. Gachet, a doctor specialized in the treatment of “melancholy”, a friend of the Impressionists, collector and amateur painter. Van Gogh settles in the heart of the village, in the Ravoux inn, explores all the aspects of the new world that appear to his eyes, while he fights against the fear of his cyclical crises, with the apprehension linked to Theo’s health and with the doubts related to their artistic value.

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheat Field under a Stormy Sky, Auvers -sur -Oise, July 1890, Oil on canvas, 101.3 x 50.4 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) | Photo: © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Although Van Gogh produced a large number of works in this last and crucial phase of his life – 73 paintings and 33 drawings, including iconic masterpieces such as the Doctor Paul Gachet, The Church of Auvers-sur-Oiseor Wheatfield with crows – no exhibition had yet been dedicated exclusively to the last months of his career.

The itinerary curated by Nienke Bakker, head of the collection and curator at the Musée Van Gogh, and by Emmanuel Coquery, general curator of the heritage and deputy director of the collections of the Musée d’Orsay, ready to inaugurate next spring in Amsterdam, and to fly in autumn in Paris, he will show forty paintings and twenty drawings by Vincent, including landscapes, portraits, still lifes, the countryside.
The public will be able to admire, in particular, a series, unique in its oeuvre, of paintings in panoramic format, with some works brought back by the painter from the asylum of Saint-Rémy.
The documentary sections of the itinerary will contextualize the painter’s activity, showing Auvers as it appeared at the time, portraying the central personality of Dr. Gachet and exploring the impact that the artist’s death had on the French and Dutch artistic environment in the last decade of the nineteenth century.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalog with the most recent research on this important part of Vincent’s oeuvre.

Vincent Van Gogh, Portrait of Doctor Gachet, 1890, Oil on canvas, 57 x 68.2 cm, Gift of Paul and Marguerite Gachet, enfants du modèle, 1949 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

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