AMSTERDAM.-Through 7 October 2007, the print room in the Rietveld building will mount the Van Gogh’s drawings: new insights presentation. Years of research into Van Gogh’s drawings have yielded new insights into the artist’s way of working. Taking both sketches as well as finished drawings as its point of departure, the presentation touches on Van Gogh’s sources of inspiration, his use of materials, techniques, experiments and his stylistic development as well as the placing of these works within the context of the rest of his oeuvre. Because of their sensitivity to light, the drawings making up this special presentation are rarely displayed.

The exhibition will feature works spanning Van Gogh’s entire career as an artist, which began in the Netherlands and ended in France. However, the emphasis lies on the works he executed during the last two years of his life, in Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise. In addition special attention will be paid to several early drawings that have been added to the museum collection in recent years.

The presentation reveals, among other things, how some of Van Gogh’s works could be dated with greater accuracy as a result of a detailed examination of the paper he used, in combination with the drawing materials utilised and the style of the drawing. Also dealt with are the new insights into the types of ink used by Van Gogh in his drawings. Among the works on display is Stone bench in the garden of the asylum from 1889, which turns out to have been painted in diluted oil paint -- and not water colour, as was previously thought. Light is shed on the relationship between the drawings and the paintings by showing works such as the canvas Mountain landscape behind the walled wheatfield from 1890 in combination with the preparatory sketch.

New acquisition Woman on her deathbed - The recently purchased work Woman on her deathbed will be presented for the first time in the Van Gogh’s drawings: new insights presentation. This scene was rendered after a painting purchased in 1880 by the Brussels-based Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Belgium. Van Gogh stayed briefly in the Belgian capital in 1880-1881. The panel, believed at the time to have been the work of Rembrandt, has since been attributed to the school of Jan Lievens. It isn’t known whether Van Gogh worked directly from the painting or from a reproduction (as was his usual practice). The drawing was acquired for the collection in 2007 and forms a welcome addition to the group of early works by Van Gogh held by the museum.

Collection catalogue Vincent van Gogh, Drawings 4. Arles, Saint-Rémy &
Auvers-sur-Oise, 1888-1890 - This is the fourth and final volume of the collection catalogue of Vincent van Gogh’s drawings in the Van Gogh Museum’s collection which will be published in September 2007. The book’s narrative descriptions are the product of years of research and comprise a detailed discussion of the art work, technical details and documents about the provenance, literature and exhibitions. 624 pages, 440 colour illustrations. Available in English and Dutch. Authors: Marije Vellekoop and Roelie Zwikker with the assistance of Monique Hageman. ISBN 978 90 400 8386 0. Price: € 99,95 (in two volumes, bound with dust jacket). Van Gogh Museum / Waanders Publishers. Co-edition partner and international distribution: Lund Humphries, Hampshire, United Kingdom.