Amsterdam - part 2 - Art Museum Heaven!

One of my dreams came true on our last day in Amsterdam.  Van Gogh is my favorite impressionist painter and has been for years.  I've been lucky enough to view a few of his works here and there, but the goal was always to get to Amsterdam where the Van Gogh Museum is located.  Once again, tickets are only sold online and sell out weeks in advance.  Prior planning is a must!

Vincent was an artist whose talent didn't come naturally (maybe that's why I feel a connection to his work).  He started in the art world working in his uncle's gallery, when that didn't work out he thought about becoming a minister which didn't work out either.  Eventually he enrolled in a couple art academies but that didn't work out either because he butt heads with them when he wanted to do his own thing.

My goal was just to soak in the paintings and leave the camera put away except for a few of my favorite pieces.  Sometimes people are too quick with the camera and miss the beauty.

The first gallery in the museum is filled with self-portraits of Van Gogh.  He painted over 20 of them and experimented with new styles of painting.

Vincent relied on his parents and brother for support so he didn't have funds to hire models to do color studies, therefore he used himself as a model using a mirror.

The Potato Eaters was his first masterpiece which he worked on for months.  Van Gogh saw peasants as hard working, simple, and honest people.  In this painting he wanted the viewer to see that they were eating potatoes that they tilled from land themselves.  He colored their faces to look like unpeeled potatoes.  To see this painting in person was quite a treat.  It really portrays the hard work and meager existence that the peasants had.

Van Gogh's Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette was meant as a comical painting, but it showed his grasp on human anatomy.

Sometimes his self-portraits included a hat or a pipe or a painter's smock.  This one is named Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat and it's painted entirely in short brush strokes.

Van Gogh moved to the south of France to Arles.  This is his bedroom in his apartment.   It's named The Bedroom. (He named paintings just like I do--simple and to the point.)

Vincent also made many trips to the Mediterranean coast from Arles.  This one is named Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.

Van Gogh's Sunflowers are his most famous paintings.  I've been fortunate to view three of the six--London, Munich, and now Amsterdam.  I believe he used three shades of yellow to complete these works along with some blue and green.  Genius!

Quinces, Lemons, Pears and Grapes preceded his Sunflower paintings and revolves around the color yellow.  Below his signature on the lower left Vincent wrote "a mon frere Theo" in red letters.  It was a gift to his brother, Theo, who had encouraged him to use more color.

This is painting by Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers.  He had come to Arles to work with Vincent in the yellow house.  They were good friends, but being roommates and artists of different styles brought tension to the relationship.

The Yellow House is the house that Vincent rented in Arles.  It's an exercise in blue and yellow.  His use of complimentary colors is unmatched.  

Wheatfield with a Reaper is the view from Vincent's room at the asylum.

One of the last paintings we viewed was Almond Blossom.  (Pinch me--am I really standing in front of Almond Blossom is what I thought to myself.)  He painted it for his brother as a gift for their newborn son who they named after Vincent. Almond blossoms early in the morning and is a symbol of new life.

After a few hours we headed out to find lunch and then to the Rijks Museum for our afternoon entry.

I compare this museum to the Smithsonian in Washington DC.  The museum is huge and filled with all sorts of treasure.  So many that it quickly became overwhelming.

I sparingly snapped photos of paintings that spoke to me.  I can't tell you who the artists are or the names of the paintings because our trip through the museum had to progress quickly due to its size.

Another Van Gogh self-portrait.

Then we turned into one gallery and my eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Is that Rembrandt's Night Watch?  Holy moly!  I never thought I'd lay eyes on this masterpiece.  It was his largest work.  It was displayed behind glass and it looked like some cleaning or something was going on.  

Holland has some famous porcelain that is blue and white.  This piece is a flower vase.

I looked at this one and thought it resembles Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring.  Sure enough, it was The Milkmaid by Vermeer.

A portrait of Rembrandt.

We figured out the tram system after the museums.  It's highly modern and sophisticated.  You don't buy a ticket, you just tap your credit card when you get on and tap it again when you get off.  The system calculates the fare and charges it right to your credit card.

The next morning we had a 4:00 a.m. wake up call to get to the airport for an early morning flight to Frankfurt and then home.  I was ready to get home!  A vacation from the vacation was highly needed.