Three works by Vincent van Gogh go on display today at the Rijksmuseum. The paintings, which the artist made in different periods of his life, are View of Amsterdam from Central Station (1885), Riverbank with Trees (1887) and Wheat Field (1888).
This generous loan from the Amsterdam-based P. and N. de Boer Foundation means that for the first time the Rijksmuseum is able to show the development of the celebrated painter’s art. And it is of particular interest that Van Gogh painted the view of Amsterdam while on his way to visit the Rijksmuseum, which had recently opened. From today, the three loaned Van Gogh works will hang together in the museum alongside his self-portrait from the Rijksmuseum collection.
After saving up for a long time, in October 1885 Van Gogh travelled from Nuenen to Amsterdam to visit the Rijksmuseum, which had only recently opened. He was very impressed by the paintings of Frans Hals – especially Militia Company of District XI – but was completely blown away by Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride. Van Gogh described Rembrandt as a poet, writing: ‘[I would] gladly give up ten years of my life to sit in front of the painting for two weeks, eating only a stale crust of bread.’ Van Gogh had brought his painting materials with him to Amsterdam, and on the morning of his visit to the Rijksmuseum he applied just a few colours with rapid brushwork to capture the view of the Singel canal and the Cupola Church. This is one of only a few city views that Van Gogh painted in this period.
Not long afterwards, Van Gogh travelled to Antwerp and then Paris to develop himself artistically. He met numerous fellow artists and experimented extensively with vivid colours and striking compositional framing. It was in Paris that Van Gogh painted Riverbank with Trees in 1887. The difference is extraordinary between his views of Amsterdam and the bank of the river Seine, which he painted two years later. In the second work he used short brushstrokes to apply crisp, bright colours in a modern compositional style. Later, in 1888 – exhausted as he was by big-city life, and keen to explore warmer colours – he moved to Arles. In the summer of that year Van Gogh grew fascinated by the area’s yellow fields of ripe wheat, and within a period of just a few weeks he created a series of views of wheat fields. One of these paintings entered the collection of Pieter de Boer and his wife Nellie Pressburger.
Main Image :Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Riverbank with Trees, On loan from the P. and N. de Boer Foundation, 2024.