Today was a particularly exciting one at the National Gallery. It started with that same moment of tension you always feel when unpacking a painting that has arrived from another gallery: will it be ok? Will it be there at all?!
In this case, thankfully it was and we got the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam's, version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers on to the wall next ot ours for the first time in 60 years. The reunion is a result of a long working friendship with the Van Gogh Museum and a collaborative conservation and research programme. This has uncovered some exciting facts about the well-loved pair, such as the light blue in the Van Gogh Museum version would have been a dark purple when Van Gogh painted it, to decorate Gaugin's bedroom for his summer 1888 visit to Arles, just before Van Gogh's famous breakdown, that incident with the ear and his spell in an Asylum.
Given the popularity (5000 visitors in the first weekend!) it seems a shame we can't have all 5 surviving paintings from this series, but even just getting these two together has been enough work for one week!
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