A Place Called Space: Vincent Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, Part 2

Saturday, 4 July 2026

Vincent Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, Part 2

To express the love of two lovers through a marriage of two complementary colours, their mixture and their contrast, the mysterious vibrations of adjacent tones'. To Theo, 1888

Vincent Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, Part 1, at the National Gallery, London.

I just realised that I did not post the second part of this exhibition, so I am doing that now. If you want to see the first post please go here . As usual, I am repeating the introduction from the first part, if you don't want to see it, skip to the first painting.

This exhibition consists of works that Van Gogh created in the course of two years whilst he lived in Arles and Saint-Remy-de Provence. It was a very productive period of his life where he created some extraordinary and innovative work. Some of these works are among his most famous and beloved creations whilst others are less familiar. What emerges from looking at these works is an intellectual artist of lucid intention, deliberation and great ambition.

Van Gogh varied his approach to style and use of colour to explore wide-ranging emotional and poetic possibilities, often with a literary or artistic source in mind. In aiming to convey meaning rather than accurately record nature, Van Gogh took a free hand in adjusting or recomposing what he observed to achieve his desired effects.