Every tulip season in the Netherlands, many tourists flock to the country to visit the Keukenhof Flower Gardens and be mesmerized by the thousands of flowers, bulbs and tulip gardens on display.

How did the tulip become a symbol for the Netherlands?

It would not be wrong to say that the tulip is almost the symbol of the Netherlands. Before we look at the history of the Netherlands’ relationship with tulips, let’s learn a little about tulips together:

The tulip is a cup-shaped and incredibly symmetrical flower of the lily family, spring blooming bulbous and often vibrantly colored. It is thought that the name ”tulip” (tulip) is derived from a Persian word meaning turban, considering its shape similar to turban. Although tulips are very popular in the Netherlands, the homeland of the tulip is not actually the Netherlands. The Tien Shan mountain range in Central Asia is known as the place where the tulip first appeared. It is known that tulip cultivation was first practiced by gardeners in the Ottoman Empire for many years, long before they came to the Netherlands.

It is not known who first brought the tulip to northwest Europe, but the most widely accepted story is that starring Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq, the ambassador between Emperor Ferdinand I and Suleiman the Magnificent. A Flemish botanist named Carolus Clusius is made director of Hortus Botanicus in Leiden and is hired by Leiden University to research medicinal plants. Ambassador Ogier Ghiselain is also a friend of Busbecq Carolus and sends him to grow some of the beautiful tulip flowers Sultan Suleiman saw in the palace gardens in his garden in Leiden. This marked the beginning of tulip cultivation in the Netherlands.

Tulips are still very popular in the Netherlands and there are even many festivals for tulips. Keukenhof is still the most popular tulip center in the Netherlands, as millions come to see the gardens in Lisse each spring. During the first half of April, more than 850,000 tulips are seen all over Amsterdam.

A few interesting facts about tulips

Striped tulips, very popular in the 17th century, got their color from a virus. Discovered in 1931, this virus was found to be transmitted by aphids. Today, multicolored tulips are artificially bred to look this way.

n 1943, Dutch Princess Margriet was born in Canada’s Ottawa Civic Hospital as the royal family fled the Netherlands during the war in Europe. In order for him to receive Dutch citizenship through his mother, Princess Juliana, the maternity ward where he was born had to be declared an international territory. The Dutch royal family sends 10,000 onions to Ottawa each year for the tulip festival as a token of gratitude.

There is a museum in Amsterdam dedicated to Van Gogh, one of the world’s most famous painters and the symbol of the city. Although Van Gogh was able to sell only one work during his lifetime, he is remembered with great interest and respect today.

In this article, we will share all the details about the Van Gogh Museum and Van Gogh, and we will answer questions such as how to buy a Van Gogh Museum ticket and what are the types. Since our article is quite long, you can go directly to the Van Gogh Museum Ticket and entrance fee section below.

Vincent Van Gogh painted 900 paintings and 1100 drawings in just 10 years (between 1880 and 1890). Located in the Museum Square, this museum contains around 200 paintings and 500 sketches of Van Gogh. The letters Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo (about 800 in number) are also exhibited in the museum. The museum also includes works by painters inspired by Van Gogh. Since painting exhibitions are also included in the museum from time to time, you also have the opportunity to visit them. We begin our article with the life story of Van Gogh.

The Life of Van Gogh

Van Gogh was born in 1853 in a village in the Netherlands’ Brabant Region. Van Gogh, who did not have a valid profession until the age of 30, started painting with the help and support of his brother Theo after this age.

The famous painter, the pioneer of Contemporary Art, meeting Paul Gauguin, one of the famous painters of the period, was a turning point in his life. The two start painting together for a while. But because they use different techniques, they are constantly arguing. In 1888, as a result of the argument, Gauguin leaves the house. Fearing that Gauguin will leave him, Van Gogh cuts off the tip of his earlobe and sends it to Gauguin. Seeing this, Gauguin does not meet with the artist again. Of course, these events are not proven events. In fact, a German art historian recently claimed that Gaugin cut off Van Gogh’s ear, and recently it has been claimed that Van Gogh cut off his ear completely. All we know is that the ear was cut off.

The artist, left alone after his fight with Gaugin, is admitted to a mental hospital when he begins to hallucinate. The painting “Starry Night” in 1889 is an exaggeration of the sky he sees in the hospital window. The artist, who was discharged from the hospital after recovering, remained under the supervision of a doctor. He committed suicide in mid-1890 and died in his brother’s arms at the hospital. Being an intelligent person, Vincent suffered from extreme depression. His indecisive mind enabled Van Gogh to create his magnificent art, but it also led to his tragic suicide.

6 months after Van Gogh’s death; His brother Theo, who was already weak due to illness, also passed away. Providing financial/spiritual support to Van Gogh, who made Van Gogh’s works come to this day, and who could not earn any money; perhaps it is his brother Theo who, along with his wife, is the only one aware of his talent. After Theo’s death, he preserved the works of his wife, Jo Van Gogh, compiled his correspondence with Theo and strived for this until his death in 1925.

Van Gogh Museum Sections

In 1962, his family donated all his works to the Van Gogh Foundation . The paintings were exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum until a new building was built in 1973. When the Van Gogh Museum, designed by Gerrit Rietveld, was built in 1973, the works were moved here.

The museum consists of a main building and an annex. The main building has 3 floors, not counting the ground floor , and it also has a basement. The important works of the artist are on the first floor.

The museum is very well planned. It proceeds in chronological order. The main floor, the ground floor (0) , contains a timeline of Van Gogh’s life, the 1st floor shows Van Gogh’s early years as an artist, you can see his famous Potato Eaters work here, and also the famous self-portraits of the artist are located on this floor.

The 2nd floor has information about Van Gogh’s personal life and the 3rd floor is the best. On this floor, you can find the years of asylum that led to Van Gogh’s suicide at the age of 37 and the Van Gogh style you are used to. His last work before he died is also on this floor. Do not skip the 3rd floor.

Annex building: Here, the works of painters who lived in the artist’s time and artists who painted under the influence of the artist are exhibited. Monet‘s Prince Hendrikkade and the View of the Kromme Waal, Breton’s The Young Peasant Girl with an Anchor, Jan Sluijters’Two Women Embracing, Saint Remy’s Lilies, Blooming Almonds and Wheat Field and the Reaper, and Gaugin’s “The Reaper ”. You can examine his self-portrait titled “Les Miserables”. In addition, periodical painting exhibitions are held here.

Featured Works of Van Gogh

As we mentioned in the introductory part of our article; The artist has about 900 works, 200 of which are in the Van Gogh Museum. At the bottom of our article, there is a 1-hour video with a slide show of all the works in the Videos We Selected section. Here, we have included the review of selected works from the main works and at the end of the section, we have made resource suggestions for you. Lets start.

Potato Eaters (1885)

This canvas is considered Van Gogh‘s first masterpiece. Van Gogh had planned the painting of the Potato Eaters long in advance and sketched it many times. The work was inspired by the lives of peasants in the Netherlands. Van Gogh lived with them for a while and aimed to get the painting right.

In the work, five figures sitting around the table are eating potatoes. Three of them are women and two are men. The work is realistic and natural as it depicts the daily life of five villagers. Most of the figures in the picture are eating a baked potato from a potato tray. The woman at the far right of the picture pours coffee from a teapot into the cups on the table. She wears hats, scarves, thick and long clothes, that’s all.

The oil lamp is placed almost in the middle of the picture and illuminates the room. Figures in a dark room were painted with the light coming from the oil lamp. Although dark and gloomy colors dominate the painting, the facial expressions of the villagers are brightly colored and reveal their mixed inner feelings. Their expressions don’t look very serious and happy. It is clear that Van Gogh is trying to portray the ordinary, poor and difficult lives of the villagers in this work. The whole picture is actually one color. In other words, the colors used are mainly dull colors such as brown and black, which gives the painting a depressing and melancholic feeling. The earthy tones are reminiscent of the rough and sunburned faces of the villagers.

The ceiling is low and close to the peasants, and the room is small and poor, creating a feeling of pressure in this work. These factors also contribute to the melancholic atmosphere in the painting.

The work is on display at the Van Gogh Museum on the 1st floor.

Sunflowers – Sunflowers (1887)

Vincent Van Gogh made a total of 12 different Sunflower works (7 in Arles and 5 in Paris). Van Gogh first painted sunflowers in the summer of 1886. Two years later, his interest resurfaced after settling in Arles, just north of Marseille’s Provence region. At the invitation of Impressionist French artist Paul Gauguin to join his Southern Studio, he began painting sunflowers to brighten the whitewashed interiors of a yellow house he rented in Lamartine, not far from town.

Some of the sunflowers in the work are lively and cheerful, decorated with flame-like leaves. Others are those that are seeded and have begun to droop. These different colors add harmony to the painting and reflect different phases of life, youth-maturity period-old age together. Recently, a painting from Van Gogh’s Sun-Flowers series was auctioned for $39.5 million, breaking a record. However, Van Gogh had hoped to sell it for $125 and failed.

The work is on display at the Van Gogh Museum, but many works of the series are exhibited in different parts of the world.

The Starry Night (1889)

This work is not currently exhibited in the Van Gogh Museum, but we wanted to tell you because it is perhaps one of Van Gogh’s most magnificent works. The Starry Night is one of Gogh’s most important works, which he painted in oil with the village of Saint-Remy-Provence and the stars on it, from the window of his room while he was in the hospital. In Starry Night, the sky is filled with swirling clouds, shining stars and a bright moon. The rotating brushstrokes create a dot-to-dot effect, guiding the viewer around the painting with the spaces between the stars. The village is peaceful and calm compared to the sky. The bell tower of the church dominates the village and symbolizes unity in the city and gives a sense of isolation. According to one view, Van Gogh identified himself with the cypress/cypress tree in front of the work.The cypress is a tree found in many of Van Gogh’s paintings.

In this work, the cypress tree is the most prominent element of the painting, but it is also the most obscure part, a dark presence in contrast to the brightly colored stars. We can think that this work was painted at a very bad time in Van Gogh’s life and that the cypress tree was matched with Gogh’s emotions. The brush strokes are largely unbroken, long and free; this creates a bridge between the sky, the cypress trees and the town. Bold, distinctive brushstrokes have been used to dramatize the movements of the stars, clouds, and moon. According to some views, there is hope in this work. The painting also portrays the painter’s passion that the strong sky creates over the quiet village during the night.

Van Gogh painted this work one year before his suicide-induced death. The cypress tree is often found in cemeteries, a different interpretation of this artifact is religious. The sky represents heaven and the afterlife; the dark earth describes this world. There are art historians who are of the opinion that Van Gogh refers to the Bible with the 11 stars he painted.

Where is Van Gogh – The Starry Night ?

The original The Starry Night is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York.

Moma museum: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79802

Yellow House (1888)

The work depicts the building where Van Gogh stayed for a time in Arles, France. Gogh wanted to set up a studio at home and invite his fellow painters. The building was an ideal place for painting. It was located in a quiet street. Paul Gauguin remained here for 9 weeks. The fight, which started with Vincent Van Gogh’s argument with Gauguin, resulted in Van Gogh amputating his own left earlobe. All we know is that after this incident Vincent Van Gogh was hospitalized and Paul Gauguin left Arles. They never met again.

There are two distinct dominant colors in the work. The pale yellow of houses and roads and the deep blue of the sky. This contrast, which contrasts with the dark color in the upper part, makes the viewers turn towards the house in the center of the picture. An everyday scene is depicted in bright sunlight, but we can see the thick, short strokes of paint that later became Van Gogh’s distinctive and popular style.

Van Gogh was one of the first Dutch painters to disregard the established standards and go his own way, which led him to this distinctive style. There will be those who wonder if the yellow building is standing now. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in the Second World War.

The work is currently on display at the Van Gogh Museum.

Wheatfield with Crows (1890)

Art Historians accept that this work is the “last work” of Van Gogh before he died, although it is not a definitive finding . It is even claimed that it was made 1-2 weeks before his death.

Partly for this reason, the artist’s suicide clues are sought in this work. Let’s examine that period together. At the beginning of July 1890, Vincent Van Gogh went alone to Paris to stay with his brother and wife, Jo. His brother Theo was in poor health and had serious financial problems, a cause of great concern for Van Gogh, who was conscious of the burden on his family and brother. Also, his nephew Vincent was sick and his wife Jo was also suffering from exhaustion. Van Gogh quickly returned to Auvers, after which he fell into depression. In a note he wrote during the making of this painting / shortly before his suicide, Van Gogh describes his mood: “I went back there, got to work. The brush almost fell out of my hand…” .

Below is a current photo of the fields depicted in this painting:

Van Gogh used strong color combinations in this painting. The blue sky contrasts with the yellow-orange wheat, while the red of the road is intensified by the green bands of grass. The menacing sky, crows, and dead-end road are thought to refer to the end of his life, and Van Gogh’s wheat fields under stormy skies and “sadness and extreme loneliness” are thought to be describing the threatening end of his life. But, as we mentioned, perhaps these meanings are attributed as it is the artist’s last work before suicide. We don’t know.

The work is on display at the Van Gogh Museum on the 3rd floor, do n’t leave without seeing it.

Almond Blossom – Blooming Almond Tree (1890)

Van Gogh made this piece on the occasion of the birth of his nephew Vincent. The buds in the work represent a new beginning, birth and happiness. Van Gogh asked his brother Theo to hang this work by his nephew’s bedside, and Theo hung the painting by little Vincent’s bedside. Like many of Van Gogh’s paintings, The Blooming Almond Tree was influenced by Japanese prints.

Bedroom in Arles – Bedroom in Arles (1888)

When Van Gogh first arrived in Arles, he found accommodation in a hotel, but immediately found it so expensive. It was cheaper and much more ideal for him to rent a house where he and Gaugin could eat, sleep and paint. He finally found the house called the Yellow House. This work belongs to Van Gogh’s bedroom in the Yellow House.

Research has shown that the strong colors we see in this work today are the result of discoloration over the years. The walls and doors, for example, were originally purple rather than blue. The seemingly odd angle of the rear wall is not an error of Van Gogh. The corner is really crooked. Although it may seem that the rules of perspective are not applied correctly throughout the picture, this is a conscious choice. Vincent told his brother Theo in a letter for this work that he had deliberately “flattened the inside” and cast his shadow so that his painting would resemble a Japanese print.

There are 3 versions of this picture. One version is at the Van Gogh Museum, another at the Orsay Museum in Paris, and another at the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago.

Self Portrait Paintings of Van Gogh

The artist has works in which he painted his own portrait in the Van Gogh Museum. Although located in The Courtauld Gallery, London, the most famous of these is the portrait with the ear bandage and the gray hat. In addition, another self-portrait by Van Gogh with his ear cut off and a pipe in his mouth belongs to the private collection of Philip Niarhos.

Self-portraits are located on the 1st floor of the museum.

ADVICES:

• Before your visit to the Van Gogh Museum, we recommend that you read Art with Umberto Arte: Artists-Movements-Paintings-Mythology .
• The Van Gogh Museum is on the Google Arts Culture page with all its works. You can find more of the artist’s works here.
• In our recommended videos section below, there is a Youtube video where all of Van Gogh’s works are featured quickly, we recommend you to watch it.

Activities at the Van Gogh Museum

The museum administration organizes guided tours on Thursdays. The tour takes about an hour. Explanations are given in English and Dutch. You can also watch a video about the artist’s life and works in the Van Gogh Museum hall.

On Fridays, the museum remains open until 21:00. Special music program, guided tours and workshop activities are organized for today. Workshops, free treasure hunts and children’s parties are held on weekends. If you are visiting with your children, you can also evaluate these activities.

Van Gogh Sunflowers Exhibition

In July and August 2019, the artist’s Sunflowers exhibition will be held. You can visit the Van Gogh museum in the auditorium (lounge) on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday between 10 am and 12 noon. The exhibition ends on 1 September. In addition, the temporary exhibition Van Gogh’s dreams will be in the museum at the same time.

The paintings “Seascape in Scheveningen” and “Reformed Church in Nuenen ” were stolen from the museum in 2002 . You can visit the paintings whose restoration and conservation processes have been completed as of September 15th.

Location and transport

The Van Gogh Museum, located in the center of Amsterdam and in the Museum Square, is easy to reach. If you take tram number 12 Museumplein, number 5 Amstelveen Binnenhof or Van Baerstraat or tram number 2 Nieuw Sloten or Van Baerlastraat, you get off directly in front of the museum. Since the trams depart every half an hour, you do not have any problems with transportation.

If you want to prefer public transportation vehicles , take the buses numbered 347 or 357 – 172 ; You can get off at the Museumplein stop.

Van Gogh Museum Ticket and Entrance Fees

As we mentioned in our visiting tips section below, the Van Gogh Museum is busy whenever you go. If you do not want to wait in the ticket queue of the most visited museum of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, we strongly recommend that you buy your ticket online in advance.

We recommend that you do not leave your visit planning to the last minute, as it is difficult to find online tickets even for the same day and the following days during the busy tourist season. We have compiled the most preferred Van Gogh Museum ticket types for you below, the tickets are divided within the museum itself and on the internet depending on the capacity. The Van Gogh Museum entrance fee is around 19 Euros as of March 2022, and an online reservation fee of +2 Euros can be obtained.

1-) Van Gogh Museum Ticket – Skip-the-Line Entry:  This is the most preferred type of ticket. However, the below mentioned I Amsterdam card is more popular. There are more than 6,500 and 12,900 positive reviews about the ticket on the two sites, respectively. We recommend Tiqets and Getyourguide, two of the most preferred ticket sites worldwide, as a reference. You can buy your tickets safely from these sites by checking your date and time range.

This ticket allows you to enter the museum directly through the security control without waiting in the ticket queue. You can get the audio guide and booklet as an additional option on these web pages, After purchasing your Van Gogh Museum Ticket, you will receive an sms and an e-mail. You can scan and pass the barcode, so paper tickets are not required. For this reason, do not enter your sms and e-mail incorrectly. Go directly to the entrance with your online ticket.

2-) Enter with I Amsterdam Card: The card is valid for 24 hours – 96 hours. We have examined this card in detail as Museum Tickets . You can find it in our I Amsterdam Card article. With this pass-card, you can enter 44 museums in Amsterdam free of charge. In addition, you have the right to use public transportation free of charge, free canal tours , discounts at selected restaurants. This card is in the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. The choice is up to you according to your visit plan. You can print the card and use it on mobile if you wish. As of the date of our article, there are 1800 positive comments about it.

3-) Van Gogh Museum Ticket & Amsterdam Canal Cruise Combo Ticket: There are more than 2,000 positive reviews about this combo ticket option. If you are not going to enter the Rijks Museum, but are going to do a canal tour and visit the Van Gogh Museum, this combo ticket is a sensible option. Card price is 65 Euros as of March 2022

4-) Van Gogh Museum Guided Tour : On this 2.5-hour guided tour in English, you will be visiting a wide range of Van Gogh Museum’s best-known and lesser-known works, accompanied by a professional guide. It is a preferable option if you have a good level of English.

5-) Van Gogh Museum & Rijks Museum Guided Tour : With this “combo” tour package, which is active in some periods of the year and some periods of the year, you can tour the two most visited museums of Amsterdam for 8 hours with a guide. The language of the tour is English and Spanish. You are traveling with a small group, not with a crowd of tens of tourists. A light lunch is also offered as part of the tour. In addition, the Amsterdam Canal Cruise is also included as part of the tour.

Visiting Tips and Museum Hours

Whenever you go, the Van Gogh Museum is busy. However, for a more enjoyable tour, visiting the Van Gogh Museum between 09:00 and 11:00 in the morning or after 15:00 in the afternoon can help you avoid peak times. Also, avoid visiting on weekends if possible. It gets very busy on weekends. After all, it is the Netherlands’ most popular museum.

We recommend that you wear comfortable shoes during your visit to the museum . There are sections in the museum where photography is allowed and not allowed. If you don’t want to deal with security, pay attention to this issue. Backpacks and suitcases are not allowed in the museum. You can leave it in the car/hotel or in the pawn booths at the stations. Until recently, there was a cloakroom on the ground floor, and they used to take your belongings and give you a number, but recently this practice has also been removed. So no lockers/cloakrooms. It should be noted that there is no problem with the stroller, the building also has an elevator for the disabled.

It takes about 2 hours for Van Gogh to take a tour of his works without hesitation and digesting his works . There is a cafe in the museum where you can eat and drink, and there is a store on the ground floor where you can buy souvenirs. We usually do not recommend museum shops, but if you have a good opportunity, stop by, even if the museum shop here is expensive.

Van Gogh Museum, whose entrance hours vary periodically, is open to visitors 365 days a year . As the Museum Tickets team, we follow and update the hours, but let’s share it anyway:

• Between 21 June-01 September 2019 and 23-31 December , visiting hours are between 09.00-19.00 on weekdays. It is open from 09:00 in the morning to 21:00 in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays .
• Between 02 September and 27 October 2019 , visiting hours are between 09.00 and 18.00. Only on Friday at 21:00 the visit ends.
• Between 28 October and 22 December 2019, visiting hours are between 09:00-17:00. It is only open until 21:00 on Fridays.
• Between 09:00 and 17:00 on 25 December, Christmas Day, 31 December and New Year’s Eve ; Open from 11:00 to 19:00 on 1 January.

In this article, we tried to give information about Van Gogh by mentioning everything about the Van Gogh Museum. We also informed you about Van Gogh Museum Ticket, Van Gogh Museum Entrance Fee and price, online ticket types. We welcome your valuable photos and comments. Thank you.

The Netherlands has hundreds of museums that are worth exploring. To guide you through the Top 25 Museums of the Netherlands , MuseumTV has made a selection of leading and special museums. The majority of these can also be found in our archive, which can be recognized by the orange play button. This way you can already get acquainted with the museum. Check out the list and get inspired!

1 – Rijksmuseum 

The Rijksmuseum is at the top of the list of the best museums in the Netherlands. With a score of 4.5 out of no less than 46,632 votes, no other museum can compete with this museum.

Take a tour of the museum or meander through the many art forms that can be found in this museum. For this museum you need about 2 to 3 hours to see the most!

Would you like to know what is currently on display in the Rijksmuseum? Then visit their page on Museum Wegwijzer or the website of the museum itself!