A Guide to Van Gogh at The Met

Considering his monumental place in art history, a world in which Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890) didn’t become an artist is practically unimaginable. But it wasn’t until the age of 27—after initial endeavors as an art dealer and a clergyman—that Van Gogh set his sights on his own artistic path.

Over the next 10 years, Van Gogh produced nearly 900 paintings and over 1,100 works on paper, many of which are treasures of The Met collection today. Among The Met Store’s longest-standing and best-selling products are Van Gogh gifts—jewelry, coasters, puzzles, stationery, mugs, and more—honoring the extraordinary ways that the artist interpreted his subjects.

Such as the Van Gogh Irises Women's Lambswool Sweater, which belongs to our new collection of women’s sweaters crafted from 100% lambswool. The striking motif on the front and back of our lambswool sweater, adapted from a beloved Van Gogh painting in the Museum’s holdings, exemplifies how The Met Store reimagines Van Gogh paintings as wearable and shareable works of art.

Other Met Store products feature details taken directly from Van Gogh paintings in the Museum. Our Van Gogh Paintings Glass Coasters zoom in on four Van Gogh paintings at The Met: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (1887), Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889), Roses (1890), and Irises (1890).

Though his mature paintings—such as those featured in our Van Gogh coasters—are awash in vibrant hues, Van Gogh felt it essential as a budding artist to master well-proportioned drawings before experimenting with color. He largely trained himself by studying 19th-century drawing manuals, copying prints, and vehemently sketching his surroundings.

Van Gogh was also strongly influenced by rural French life as portrayed by Jean-François Millet, a leading figure of the Barbizon School. Van Gogh subsequently painted over 40 studies of peasants, including the Museum’s The Potato Peeler (1885). Two years later, he would paint the comparatively exuberant Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (1887) on the reverse side of the canvas. This iconic self-portrait is one of the highlights of Van Gogh’s Met paintings.

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat was evidently influenced by the atmospheric Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist works that Van Gogh saw while he stayed, from 1886 to 1888, with his brother Theo in Paris. Lacking the funds for a model, Van Gogh honed his figure-painting skills by way of over 20 self-portraits. Each example reflects his evolving experimentation with color and brushwork.

In February 1888, Van Gogh left Paris for Arles in the South of France. In less than a month, he created 14 paintings of orchards that capture his fascination with the landscape in springtime.

The people of Arles likewise proved inspirational to Van Gogh. Among his many paintings of the family members of the postmaster Joseph Roulin are five portraits of Madame Augustine-Alix Pellicot Roulin, whom Van Gogh depicted as a Madonna-like figure. 

Van Gogh’s Met painting La Berceuse (1889), which means "lullaby, or woman who rocks the cradle," portrays Madame Roulin in a jewel-toned room holding a rope attached to an unseen cradle. He envisioned her portrait as the central panel of a triptych, flanked by paintings of sunflowers. Van Gogh’s decision to employ a rich color palette came from his desire to “sing a lullaby with color.” He began these portraits just before his breakdown in December 1888, and completed them in early 1889.

Unrelenting complications with his mental health prompted Van Gogh to voluntarily admit himself to the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, located in the Romanesque monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. This painting’s colorful palette belies the artist’s struggles. Despite the picturesque wheat fields, olive groves, cypresses, and flowers in and around the monastery, the asylum did not afford the cure the artist had hoped for, and he died shortly thereafter. 

By the time of his death in 1890, Van Gogh’s work was attracting attention from critics and fellow artists. Today, his inimitable creative genius is celebrated the world over.

In addition to Van Gogh’s many works on paper in The Met’s Drawings and Prints collection, which can only be exhibited for short periods of time under carefully controlled conditions due to their fragile nature, visitors to the Museum can see Van Gogh’s on-view paintings in Gallery 822 and Gallery 825 at The Met Fifth Avenue. Below, learn more about the Van Gogh paintings at the Museum and the Met Store products they’ve inspired.

Sunflowers (1887) is one of four still lifes the artist painted featuring these eye-catching yellow blooms in Paris during the late summer of 1887. Van Gogh’s friend and contemporary Paul Gauguin once owned two of the smaller sunflower studies, displaying them above his bed before selling them in the mid-1890s to finance his trip to the South Seas. 

The Van Gogh Sunflowers Jewelry reimagines these cheerful flowers in full bloom. 

This radiant painting portrays an arrangement of oleanders, which Van Gogh considered life-affirming flowers for the way they bloom "inexhaustibly." Here, they’re symbolically presented in a majolica jug next to a copy of Emile Zola's novel La joie de vivre. 

Fun for the whole family, this double-sided Van Gogh puzzle is a wonderful way to get up close and personal with the astounding details of Oleanders. Van Gogh’s Irises (1890) is featured on the reverse side of the puzzle. Read more about The Met Store’s collection of art-inspired puzzles here. 

Van Gogh became captivated by cypresses during his convalescence at the asylum in Saint-Rémy. Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889), a highlight of The Met collection, is among Van Gogh’s exuberant compositions featuring the towering trees. The ordinarily self-critical artist regarded this painting as one of his "best" summer landscapes.

Van Gogh’s preoccupation with this particular subject was illustrated in The Met’s exhibition Van Gogh’s Cypresses, held at The Met Fifth Avenue in 2023. Relive the celebrated showcase with this richly illustrated exhibition catalogue. In addition to insightful essays about the artist, the visual and literary heritage of Van Gogh’s cypresses is featured in a compilation of images and excerpts from 19th-century poetry, novels, and travel writing—many translated into English for the first time.

Get cozy in our Van Gogh Wheat Field with Cypresses Hoodie, or give your look an artful kick with our Van Gogh Wheat Field with Cypresses Men’s Socks.

The Van Gogh mug and tea towel set makes a great host or hostess gift; while the light, silk-twill construction of our billowing oversize scarf perfectly suits the easy, breezy scene. Read more about The Met’s exhibition here, and shop our full range of products inspired by this Van Gogh highlight.

This is one of five pictures of olive orchards that Van Gogh made in November 1889, painted directly from nature. “What I've done is a rather harsh and coarse realism beside their abstractions,” he described, “but it will nevertheless impart a rustic note, and will smell of the soil.” 

Olive Trees features on one side of our Van Gogh Stylized Nature Double-Sided Square Silk Scarf. The painting’s earthy hues and energetic brushwork will complement—and elevate—any look. Learn more about many ways you can style your Met scarf here.

On the other side of the Van Gogh Stylized Nature Double-Sided Square Silk Scarf is the comparatively dusky Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase. 

This still life is not mentioned in Van Gogh’s letters and has puzzled scholars as to its place in his artistic production. Though it shares stylistic similarities with some of his earlier compositions—the quasi-abstract floral wallpaper design in The Met’s La Berceuse (1889) and Irises (1890), this painting’s moody palette and graphic brushwork link it firmly with the late-life landscapes Van Gogh made preceding his death in July 1890.

Just before his departure from the asylum in Saint-Rémy in May 1890, Van Gogh created four radiant spring bouquets, including the exuberant Irises (1890). Van Gogh sought to achieve a "harmonious and soft" effect by placing the "violet" flowers against a "pink background," but owing to his use of fugitive red pigments, these colors have since faded.

Irises has long been one of the most popular Van Gogh motifs at The Met Store. Best sellers include this Van Gogh mug, complete with a tea infuser and lid to keep your beverage warm; the Van Gogh Irises Oblong Silk Scarf, a 100% cotton apron with an adjustable neck strap, and our folding umbrella. 

You can even exhibit your very own Van Gogh Irises print in your home or office with Met Custom Prints. Learn more about the process of customizing your very own Met Custom Print here.

From artful gifts to mementos of your visit to The Met—even a bag to tote it all around in—shop the full Van Gogh Irises collection.

This lush bouquet of roses belongs to the same spring quartet that Van Gogh created in 1890. Though the color has softened, traces of pink nestled in the blooms and along the tabletop hint at the vividness of the artist's "canvas of pink roses against a yellow-green background in a green vase" in its original state.

Let our Van Gogh Roses Journal inspire your next sketch, poem, or bright idea—you can even write it down with the Van Gogh Roses Ballpoint Pen.

Shop our full collection of jewelry, accessories, apparel, stationery, and home decor inspired by Van Gogh paintings at The Met in-store and online.