Boijmans van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam bought a Painting by Vincent van Gogh

Monday, March 11, 2024
Boijmans van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam bought a Painting by Vincent van Gogh

The museum said it had acquired the work, Still Life with Potatoes, which dates from 1887, for an undisclosed sum to ensure it stayed in the Netherlands. It was previously on long-term loan from a private collection.

The painting has been on loan to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen for more than forty years. The risk with a long-term loan – especially with such a big name as Vincent van Gogh – is that the owner will request its return or sell it, possibly abroad. This purchase ensures that this Van Gogh painting will be preserved for the National Art Collection. 

Vincent van Gogh painted Still Life with Potatoes in Paris, after studying for a short period at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1885. While his paintings in his native Brabant – such as The Potato Eaters – had a dark, restricted palette, in France he was inspired to make brightly coloured works. Still Life with Potatoes is a pivotal work in this transition. It is less sombre in tone than his Dutch works and is very expressive. He wrote to his brother Theo about painting and depicting potatoes. Van Gogh said that he wanted to depict the potatoes in such a way that they would appear as as in real life. He wanted to give the impression that you could throw them.