Where to See Van Gogh

Amsterdam and Otterlo

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam provides an unusually broad starting point. Its selected online collection brings together works from different periods, including The Yellow House, Wheatfield with Crows and Tree Roots. Japanese prints and works by contemporaries also belong to its wider collection context. Those selections place the paintings in relation to other art, without serving as a complete inventory or a list of everything on display. ^[1]

For the Dutch period, look for The Potato Eaters, painted at Nuenen in April–May 1885, accession s0005V1962. This is the large final composition, measuring 82 × 114 cm and identified in catalogues as F82 and JH764. Its record listed it on view. A preparatory study at another museum is a separate original. The Amsterdam record identifies the Vincent van Gogh Foundation’s holding as a permanent loan to the museum. ^[4]

Amsterdam’s The Bedroom, s0047V1962, is the October 1888 original painted at Arles. The canvas measures 72.4 × 91.3 cm and depicts his room in the Yellow House. Its record listed it on view. The Foundation permanent-loan credit also appears here; the family collection’s history explains how so many works came to be housed together. ^[5]

The museum’s Sunflowers, s0031V1962, dates to January 1889 and was listed on view. The museum connects the flower with gratitude and explains that Van Gogh made repetitions of the two sunflower pictures Gauguin had admired. Amsterdam’s canvas therefore belongs to the history of Van Gogh revisiting his own subjects. ^[6]

Almond Blossom, s0176V1962, carries the sequence forward to Saint-Rémy in February 1890. Van Gogh made it for his newborn nephew, the son of Theo and Jo. Its record listed it on view and again credited the Foundation’s permanent loan. Together, these four exact records connect the 1885 Dutch work with paintings of 1888, 1889 and 1890, without requiring every famous Amsterdam picture to be assumed available at once. ^[7]

The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo is a second major Dutch centre. Its current account gives 88 paintings and 172 works on paper. A special presentation announced all 88 paintings together from 15 September 2026 to 3 January 2027. That dated presentation is different from the museum’s enduring collection: it should not be read as a promise that every painting will always be displayed. The holdings include a Potato Eaters study, which should be distinguished from Amsterdam’s final composition. ^[8]

Terrace of a Café at Night, KM108.565, is one of Otterlo’s most recognisable originals. The museum dates it to about 16 September 1888 and listed it on view. It is the outdoor café subject associated with the Place du Forum in Arles. Keep the fuller title when searching: The Night Café belongs to a different collection and represents an interior. “Van Gogh’s café painting” is too broad a description to locate either one securely. ^[9]

Another anchor is The Sower, KM106.399, dated about 17–28 June 1888 and listed on view. The June date separates it from the later sower painting in Amsterdam. ^[10] Comparing the two Dutch collections can therefore involve different treatments of one subject, as well as different subjects altogether. Their Sowers and their Potato Eaters examples are not duplicate catalogue entries for paintings that move back and forth between the museums. ^{[1] [8]}

Paris, London and Edinburgh

At the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the holdings encompass more than one late period or type of subject. Its selected alphabetical collection page includes The Church at Auvers and Doctor Gachet of 1890, La Méridienne of 1889–90 and L’Arlésienne of 1888. The smaller Bedroom, RF19592, dates to 1889. These are useful separate destinations within one collection, rather than reasons to regard Orsay solely as the home of a single famous night scene. ^[11]

That night scene is Starry Night over the Rhône, RF197519, painted in September 1888. Its record said that it was not currently exhibited. It remains an Orsay holding even while off display. It is also a different work from MoMA’s The Starry Night: the river title and the 1888 date are helpful identifiers. ^[12] Orsay’s smaller Bedroom supplies another connection with Amsterdam, but the river scene supplies no reason to assume that every work in the collection shares its display status. ^[11]

The National Gallery in London holds Sunflowers, NG3863, dated 1888. Its record said not on display. Bought with the Courtauld Fund in 1924 and transferred from the Tate in 1961, it belongs to the National Gallery’s collection history; the Courtauld Fund credit does not mean that it is housed at the separate Courtauld Gallery. That distinction is especially helpful in London, where both institutions have important Van Gogh paintings. ^[13]

The National Gallery also holds A Wheatfield, with Cypresses, NG3861, the September 1889 canvas. It differs from the earlier painting in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The gallery’s artist page is a useful way to browse other holdings, but its eight online records should not be turned into a claim that eight paintings are on view. For this subject, retain both the accession and the month: “the London cypresses” and “the Met cypresses” identify separate canvases within a related group. ^[14]

At the Courtauld Gallery in London, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, P.1948.SC.175, dates to 1889 and was listed on display. Its collection credit records a 1948 bequest. The work measures 60.5 × 50 cm. Its precise title separates it from the other self-portraits described below in Oslo, Washington and Detroit. ^[15]

The Courtauld’s Peach Trees in Blossom, P.1932.SC.176, is another 1889 painting and was also listed on display. It entered the collection as a gift in 1932. This is the Courtauld’s own orchard canvas, rather than one of the Amsterdam paintings or a picture at the National Gallery. The wider orchard group crosses museum boundaries, so a shared flowering-tree subject is only the beginning of an identification. ^[16]

In Edinburgh, the National Galleries of Scotland’s National collection holds Olive Trees, NG1803, dated 1889 and purchased in 1934. The current record listed it on display. Measuring 51.2 × 65.4 cm, this is a particular canvas within the wider olive-tree subject, which also appears in collections in New York and Washington. ^[17]

Orchard with Apricot Trees in Blossom, Arles, NG2217, is an earlier work of 1888, given in 1960. Its current record likewise listed it on display at the National. The canvas measures 54.6 × 65.3 cm. Together with Olive Trees, it connects the Arles blossom paintings of 1888 with the tree subjects of the following year. ^[18]

Munich, Oslo, Moscow and St Petersburg

Munich’s Neue Pinakothek collection includes Sunflowers, inventory 8672, dated 1888. Its object record located it in the Alte Pinakothek, ground floor, Saal I. This is Munich’s own canvas, separate from the London painting of the same year. The acquisition credit associates it with the Tschudi donation of 1912. The collection name and the building named in the display field serve different purposes; both are needed to understand this location. ^[19]

The same Munich room was listed for View of Arles, inventory 8671, dated 1889. Its catalogue identifiers F516 and JH1685 distinguish it from other views and flowering-orchard paintings. It measures 73.5 × 92.5 cm. For readers following Van Gogh’s orchard landscapes, the exact record is a useful safeguard against treating every similar title as the same work. ^[20]

The Neue Pinakothek building was closed for renovation. The institution described selected nineteenth-century works as displayed in the Alte Pinakothek and the Schack collection. For the two Van Gogh paintings above, the individual records specifically named the Alte Pinakothek. A reference to the Neue Pinakothek in a catalogue is therefore a valid collection attribution, but it does not by itself identify the building where a visitor would find the painting on this date. ^[21]

In Oslo, the Nasjonalmuseet holds Self-Portrait, NG.M.00943, dated 1889. Acquired in 1910, it was listed on display in Room 054. The canvas measures 51.5 × 45 cm. The museum’s current attribution identifies it as a Van Gogh. Its accession distinguishes it from the 1887 self-portrait in Detroit and the 1889 self-portrait in Washington. These are separate objects, despite their shared abbreviated title. ^[22]

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow holds The Red Vineyard, inventory Ж-3372, of 1888. This identifies a particular original and collection without making an assurance about its daily display. The vineyard subject offers a separate Arles work from the Hermitage’s remembered garden scene in St Petersburg. ^[23]

The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg holds Memory of the Garden at Etten, inventory ГЭ-9116, painted at Arles in 1888. Its record named the General Staff Building, Room 413. The painting entered the Hermitage in 1948 from the State Museum of New Western Art and had belonged to the Shchukin collection. Here the title’s remembered place, Etten, differs from the place of painting and from its present collection location: three geographical associations attached to one object. ^[24]

Memory of the Garden at Etten, F496/JH1630. State Hermitage Museum, GE9116.

New York, Chicago and Washington

The Museum of Modern Art in New York holds The Starry Night, accession 472.1941, dated June 1889. It was listed on view on Floor 5, Gallery 501. MoMA’s related works also include Olive Trees and Portrait of Joseph Roulin, whose presence in the collection does not establish their display on the same day. Its online Van Gogh results include works on paper, so six records are not equivalent to six paintings. The June 1889 canvas is the work to seek when the familiar title is used without the Rhône qualification. ^[2]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a separate New York institution, holds Wheat Field with Cypresses, accession 1993.132, dated late June 1889. The museum connects this first version with work directly before the motif. ^[25] The London canvas is the later September repetition. ^[14] The Met picture, F717 and JH1756, was listed in Gallery 822. Its 1993 Annenberg gift credit helps identify the collection history of this particular canvas, rather than the history of every painting in the group. ^[25]

The Met also holds The Flowering Orchard, accession 56.13, painted in 1888 and listed in Gallery 825. F552 and JH1381 identify this upright orchard composition within the larger series. It offers a different connection with Van Gogh’s work from the cypress painting: an earlier Arles orchard rather than the later Saint-Rémy wheat-field subject. The two works were listed in separate galleries. ^[26]

A third distinct Met original is Irises, accession 58.187, dated 1890 and listed in Gallery 099. Its museum label places it among the bouquets Van Gogh painted in May 1890 at Saint-Rémy. This is the vase still life, rather than the Getty’s 1889 garden painting; the shared flower title joins two different kinds of subject and two separate canvases. ^[27]

At the Art Institute of Chicago, The Bedroom, 1926.417, is the second full-size version, painted in September 1889. It belongs to the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection and was listed in Gallery 241. Amsterdam holds the October 1888 original, while Orsay has the smaller 1889 version. Chicago’s collection links also lead to The Poet’s Garden, a Self-Portrait and Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La Berceuse); those related links identify further holdings without establishing that they share the Bedroom’s current gallery or display status. ^[28]

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, is distinct from London’s National Gallery. Its selected works include Self-Portrait (1889, 1998.74.5), La Mousmé (1888, 1963.10.151), Roses (1890, 1991.67.1), Green Wheat Fields, Auvers (1890, 2013.122.1) and Olive Orchard (1889, 1963.10.152). Farmhouse in Provence and an etching of Doctor Gachet broaden that selection. The artist page’s 23 works of art include a print, rather than representing 23 paintings. These holdings provide several precise starting points for collection browsing; their inclusion here carries no daily display assurance. ^[29]

Roses, 1890. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1991.67.1.

Other distinctive collections in the United States

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles holds Irises, 90.PA.20, painted in 1889. Its record said not currently on view. This is the garden subject, distinct from the Met’s vase still life of 1890. The collection link remains useful while the painting is absent from display. ^[30]

In Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum is a separate institution. Its Van Gogh holdings comprise six oil paintings as well as an early drawing, an etching and a letter of 1890. The paintings extend from Dutch subjects, including a still life and a snowy vicarage view, to the Arles portraits of his mother and Patience Escalier. This gives the collection a range beyond a single famous landscape, without turning its holdings into a claim that every kind of Van Gogh work is represented. ^[31]

That landscape is The Mulberry Tree, accession M.1976.09.P, painted in October 1889 at Saint-Rémy. F637 and JH1796 identify the same object, which the museum listed on view. The canvas measures 54 × 65 cm. The Pasadena landscape and the Getty’s Los Angeles Irises connect two separate collections with Van Gogh’s Saint-Rémy period. ^[32]

The Philadelphia Museum of Art holds another Sunflowers, dated 1889, a winter repetition rather than London’s 1888 canvas. The museum describes it as a variation on the composition now in Munich, made from memory in winter. This is an original painting in its own right: a repetition here means Van Gogh revisiting a composition, rather than a modern reproduction. ^[33]

Philadelphia’s exhibition paired its Sunflowers, 1963-116-19, with the London painting from 6 June to 11 October 2026. That exhibition had ended by 2 November. Its announcement cannot establish that the London loan was still in Philadelphia, that the Philadelphia painting was currently displayed, or that either picture had returned to a particular gallery. The owning collection and an exhibition venue answer different questions; the object records remain the relevant links after the temporary event has finished. ^[34]

The Cincinnati Art Museum holds Undergrowth with Two Figures, 1967.1430, dated June 1890. Its record said not on display. This is an Auvers landscape from the last year of Van Gogh’s life, rather than a Saint-Rémy picture identified merely through its woodland subject. It offers another point of entry into the landscapes, beyond the better-known wheat fields. The accession fixes the identity even when a shortened title omits the figures. ^[35]

Undergrowth with Two Figures, Cincinnati, 1967.1430.

The Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven holds The Night Café, painted in 1888. Yale’s university article of 14 July 2025 discusses the painting with curator Jessie Park. Its subject is a café interior, unlike Otterlo’s outdoor terrace. For current display availability, follow Yale’s collection information. The outdoor café scene and the two starry nights are different subjects and originals. ^[36]

The Cleveland Museum of Art holds Two Poplars in the Alpilles, accession 1958.32, dated 1889. The object record listed Location 222. Its bequest credit names Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Its full museum title, Two Poplars in the Alpilles near Saint-Rémy, identifies the landscape more precisely. The unframed canvas measures 61.6 × 45.7 cm, with height greater than width; it is a different tree painting from Pasadena’s Mulberry Tree or Edinburgh’s Olive Trees. ^[37]

The Detroit Institute of Arts holds Self-Portrait, 22.13, dated 1887 and acquired in 1922. The medium is oil on artist’s board mounted on wood. Its record said not on view. At 34.9 × 26.7 cm, this is smaller than the Oslo and Courtauld examples. Its date, dimensions and support distinguish the object even when a caption gives only the general title Self-Portrait. ^[38]

Two separate Tokyo collections

The SOMPO Museum of Art in Tokyo has held its Sunflowers since 1987. The museum labels the painting 1888. It belongs to the group of separate vase paintings dispersed among museums; the shared title does not merge its identity with the Amsterdam or Philadelphia repetitions. The museum’s dating is the useful label for finding this holding, while the precise chronology of the repetitions is a separate question. ^[3]

As of 2 November 2026, SOMPO’s exhibition FAQ described Sunflowers as displayed whenever the museum is open. That is the institution’s dated description of its display arrangement. ^[39] The ceramic Sunflowers outside the building is a reproduction, so encountering that outdoor image is different from seeing the original painting. ^[40]

Tokyo’s National Museum of Western Art holds Roses, P.1959-0193, dated 1889 and associated with the Matsukata Collection. Its museum commentary places it near the transition from Arles to Saint-Rémy, leaving the exact location of painting uncertain. This is a different institution and object from SOMPO’s Sunflowers. It is also distinct from Washington’s Roses of 1890. The flower name alone is therefore insufficient: retain the city, museum and year when following this particular painting. Check the museum’s current collection information for display availability. ^[41]

Finding the right original

A title is a useful beginning, but a museum accession is a more exact identifier. It refers to a particular object within a collection. Dates, catalogue numbers and the collection credit can then resolve a collision between two similar titles. The distinction also works in reverse: different translated titles can refer to one physical painting, so the spelling of a title need not be the only point of comparison.

These comparisons do not require every version to be displayed simultaneously. They identify the collection to follow and the painting to ask about. A museum’s collection name, an exhibition title and a physical gallery room each give a different kind of information. Preserve those distinctions when reading an old caption or planning to see one exact work.