Vincent van Gogh Paintings

About Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh, 1853 to 1890, was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter and is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self portraits, and they are characterized by bold colors and dramatic, impulsive, expressive brushwork that helped lay the foundations of the modern movement. His suicide at the age of 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. In a van Gogh self portrait the face appears as it did in the mirror he used, so what reads as his right side in the painting is in reality the left side of his face.

The places are in the titles. His first major canvas was painted in April and May of 1885 in Nuenen, in the Netherlands. The first of the two flower series came in Paris in 1887, and the second a year later in Arles, where he prepared the Yellow House for Paul Gauguin. Cafe Terrace at Night is an 1888 canvas of the terrace on the Place du Forum, exhibited in 1891 under the title Coffeehouse, in the evening. From May 1889 to May 1890 he lived, at his own request, at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, painting its garden and, when he had permission to go out, the olive trees, the cypresses and the wheat fields around it.

Series and periods

Van Gogh worked in bursts tied to one place at a time, so the collection reads best by period and by motif.

• Nuenen and the Dutch years: the dark peasant work, painted before he left the Netherlands. Titles here: The Potato Eaters, Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves, after Millet.
• Paris and Arles: the two flower series, the first with the blooms lying on the ground in Paris in 1887, the second a bouquet in a vase in Arles a year later, and the night terrace on the Place du Forum. Titles here: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, Sunflowers, Cafe Terrace at Night, Starry Night Over the Rhone.
• Saint-Remy, 1889 and 1890: the asylum year, when the view from the window, the garden and the fields beyond the wall became the work. Titles here: The Starry Night, Irises, Still Life with Irises, Trees in the Asylum Garden, Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, Large Plane Trees.
• Blossom and hope: flowering trees meant awakening and hope to him, and Almond Blossom was made to celebrate the birth of his nephew and namesake, the son of his brother Theo and his sister-in-law Jo. The group was painted in 1888 and 1890 in Arles and in Provence, and the works carry the influence of Impressionism, Divisionism and Japanese woodcuts. Titles here: Branches with Almond Blossom.
• After Millet: his own versions of Jean-Francois Millet, painted from the older master's compositions. Titles here: Noon, Rest from Work, First Steps.

Most famous works

These are the van Gogh titles people ask for most in this collection, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each name opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame. Every one is painted in oil after van Gogh, to order, and no two hands read a brushstroke the same way.

• The Starry Night: an oil on canvas painted in June 1889, the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room just before sunrise, with an imaginary village added. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, and has been called a touchstone of modern art
• Still Life, Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: from the second flower series, made in Arles in 1888, a bouquet in a vase
• Sunflowers: the title covers two series of still life paintings, and van Gogh linked them in his own mind with the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who bought two of the Paris versions
• Irises: painted in 1889, a landscape with a cropped composition, one of the several hundred pieces he made at the asylum in the last year before his death in 1890. The original has been at the Getty in Los Angeles since 1990
• Still Life with Irises: the same flowers cut and set in a vase, from that asylum year, including the blue that runs through it
• Cafe Terrace at Night (Place du Forum, Arles): an 1888 oil painting, also known as The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, and titled Coffeehouse, in the evening when it was first exhibited in 1891
• Starry Night Over the Rhone: town lights and stars over the river, painted at Arles
• Branches with Almond Blossom: from the Almond Blossoms group of 1888 and 1890, blossom read close up against flat blue, and a picture made to mark a birth in the family
• The Potato Eaters: painted in April and May of 1885 in Nuenen, in the Netherlands, a peasant family at supper by lamplight
• Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun: one of at least 15 paintings of olive trees, mostly made in 1889
• Wheat Field with Cypresses: the wheat and the cypresses he could reach when he had permission to leave the asylum grounds
• Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun: a reaper at work in the heat of the same fields
• Large Plane Trees: plane trees along a road, the brush laid on thick to catch the light in front of him
• Trees in the Asylum Garden: the garden he was free to paint every day of that year
• Pink Roses: a still life of cut roses, a quieter piece from the same period as the self portrait
• Two Poplars on a Hill: two trees and the slope behind them, the whole subject
• Harvest at La Crau: the plain of La Crau with Montmajour behind it, painted at Arles
• Noon, Rest from Work (after Millet): his version of a Millet composition, two figures asleep in the straw
• First Steps (after Millet): another version after Millet, a child let go for the first time

Browse by subject

van Gogh's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same painter.

• Post-Impressionism: 2,226 works, the mainly French movement that ran from the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 to the birth of Fauvism around 1905, a reaction against the Impressionist concern with the naturalistic depiction of light and color, with Cezanne, Gauguin, van Gogh and Seurat as its principal artists. Van Gogh is named in the definition of the movement, alongside Cezanne, Gauguin and Seurat.
• Landscape paintings: 8,004 canvases, the genre in which the main subject is a wide view of natural scenery, mountains, valleys, rivers, trees and forests, with sky almost always in the view and weather often an element of the composition. The wheat fields, the olive groves and the plain of La Crau belong here.
• Tree paintings: 4,858 titles, The cypresses, the plane trees, the poplars and the almond branches, gathered by the one motif he never dropped.
• Flower paintings: 1,325 pieces, The sunflower bouquets, the irises and the roses, the flower pieces that made his name.
• Still life paintings: 2,329 paintings, the picture of mostly inanimate subject matter, the commonplace objects of a table or a studio, either natural or human-made. The vases and the cut stems, including both of the flower series and the Pink Roses.
• The 100 most famous paintings of all time: 10 canvases by van Gogh sit on this list, our reading of the best known paintings in art history, more than any other painter on it.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

Which van Gogh painting is the most famous?

The June 1889 night sky, painted from the window of his asylum room, is the one visitors open most here and has been called a touchstone of modern art. the sunflower bouquets, Irises and Cafe Terrace at Night follow, and ten Vincent van Gogh paintings sit on our list of the 100 most famous, the ones above included.

Where are van Gogh's originals?

In museums. The June 1889 night canvas has been at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, and Irises has been at the Getty in Los Angeles since 1990, which is the practical reason hand-painted reproductions exist.

How many paintings did van Gogh make?

Vincent van Gogh painted for barely ten years and left roughly 860 oils, most of them from his last two years. This collection carries 652 titles from that body of painting, the early canvases included.

What is Post-Impressionism?

The mainly French movement that ran from the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886 to the birth of Fauvism around 1905. It reacted against the Impressionist concern with the naturalistic depiction of light and color, and van Gogh is one of its four principal artists, with Cezanne, Gauguin and Seurat, all names you meet again in art history.

Which van Gogh should I start with?

If you want the picture everyone knows, take the June 1889 night sky. If you want color on a wall, take a sunflower bouquet or the Irises. If you want the early, darker painting, take the Nuenen supper from the Dutch years.

Are these original Vincent van Gogh paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after van Gogh's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every van Gogh reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.