Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow at the Philadelphia Art Museum (6 June-11 October) will be top of the bill of exhibitions on the artist in 2026. The Arles Sunflower paintings are very rarely lent, but London’s National Gallery is to loan its version with a yellow background, which will be shown with Philadelphia’s picture with a turquoise background. A few weeks ago we broke the news of this blockbuster show.
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers from London’s National Gallery (August 1888) and the Philadelphia Art Museum (January 1889)
National Gallery, London and Philadelphia Art Museum
Meanwhile, Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum will be presenting an exhibition devoted to yellow pigment. Yellow: Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour (13 February-17 May) will show the work of 15 artists, but of course it will revolve around the Sunflowers (with ten other Van Goghs). The Amsterdam museum has a slightly later version (January 1889) of the London original.
The other great Van Gogh collection is also in the Netherlands, at the Kröller-Müller Museum, set in a national park in the east of the country. It often loans a substantial group of its Van Goghs to East Asian museums, and many are now in Japan (see below). Usually the Kröller-Müller shows around 35 Van Gogh paintings in its own museum, but later this year it will present all its 88 pictures, for the first time since 1984. Van Gogh, All Our Paintings runs from 15 September to 3 January 2027.
Part of the Kröller-Müller Museum’s Van Gogh collection in a recent display
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (photograph Marjon Gemmeke)
At another Dutch venue, the Noordbrabants Museum in Den Bosch will be showing works by the city’s major 20th-century artist, Jan Sluijters, who was strongly influenced by Van Gogh. Jan and Vincent: About Light runs from 18 October to 21 February 2027.
Visitors in Japan will also be well-served by Van Gogh exhibitions, since both the Kröller-Müller Museum and the Van Gogh Museum are currently touring groups of works to Japanese museums. The Van Gogh Museum’s paintings have just arrived at their final exhibition stop, Nagoya’s Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (until 23 March 2026), in the exhibition Van Gogh’s Home: The Van Gogh Museum.
Van Gogh’s Self-portrait as an Artist (December 1887-February 1888, Van Gogh Museum) and Self-portrait (April-June 1887, Kröller-Müller Museum), now in two separate exhibitions in Japan, in Ngoya and Kobe
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) and Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
The Kröller-Müller’s The Grand Van Gogh Exhibition is now at its opening venue, Kobe City Museum (until 1 February). It will then tour to the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (21 February-10 May) and Tokyo’s Ueno Royal Museum (29 May-12 August).
Meanwhile two modest exhibitions in Europe are both in historic buildings linked to the artist. The Van Gogh House in Zundert, the artist’s birthplace, is marking the 140th anniversary of the artist’s brief stay in nearby Antwerp. It is showing contemporary works inspired by the master (but no original Van Goghs), in Van Gogh in Antwerp (until 1 March).
At the Maison du Dr Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise, the house of the doctor who cared for Van Gogh in his last weeks, will be exhibiting paintings by Dr Paul Gachet and his son. The pair signed their artworks with the pseudonym Van Ryssel. Paul and Louis van Ryssel: Forgotten Masterpieces (working title) will run from 18 April to 31 July. The pictures are all on loan from a French private collector. Also in Auvers, the Maison de Van Gogh (the inn where the artist stayed) will reopen to visitors for the season on 4 March.
Dr Paul Gachet (1903) painted by his son (who signed his work Louis van Ryssel)
Private collection, France (photograph ©arthénon)
The Foundation Vincent Gogh Arles is presenting an exhibition inspired by the artist’s letters, with contemporary works. Entitled To Vincent: A Winter’s Tale, it runs until 26 April and includes two Van Gogh paintings: Head of a Woman (December 1885) and Sunflowers gone to Seed (August-September 1887).
Van Gogh’s Head of a Woman (December 1885)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
A British angle
And a final note about 2026. It marks the 150th anniversary of Van Gogh’s two brief stays in England, in the village of Isleworth in west London and the port of Ramsgate in Kent. Then aged 23, he was working as a junior teacher in small private schools. Soon after his arrival in Ramsgate Vincent wrote to his brother Theo that “giving the lessons isn’t so difficult, but it’ll be more difficult to make the boys learn them”. In his free time, he occasionally made little sketches.
Van Gogh’s drawing of View of Royal Road, Ramsgate (May 1876)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh found teaching challenging, soon feeling that his talents lay elsewhere. At Christmas 1876 he returned to the Netherlands, never to return to England.
Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh specialist and special correspondent for The Art Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery, Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.
Martin Bailey’s recent Van Gogh books
Martin has written a number of bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are also now available in a more compact paperback format.
His other recent books include Living with Vincent van Gogh: The Homes & Landscapes that shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which provides an overview of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Friend Van Gogh/Emile Bernard provides the first English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).
To contact Martin Bailey, please email [email protected]
Please note that he does not undertake authentications.
Explore all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh here
