15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh

By Okan PİŞKİN Art History May 11, 2022

Which of Vincent van Gogh’s famous paintings do you know? Have you ever wondered about the stories of these paintings? Van Gogh, who created hundreds of works of art in his short artistic life, contains interesting stories in his world-famous paintings as well as in his life. After all, aren’t these works reflections of van Gogh’s life? How about getting to know Vincent van Gogh and his world-famous paintings? Now we would like to take you on an art journey with ‘The 15 Most Famous by Vincent Van Gogh’.

Was Vincent van Gogh a madman or a misunderstood genius? In both cases, we can say that Vincent van Gogh left behind a valuable art collection that he could not even imagine when he was alive.

While many other painters and artists in art history became wealthy during their lifetime, Vincent van Gogh managed to sell only one painting in his lifetime. (Red Vineyard at Arles (1888)). Today, some of the world’s most famous and valuable paintings belong to Vincent van Gogh.

The life of Vincent van Gogh means endless suffering, being dragged from one disaster to another. The life of Vincent van Gogh means lost jobs, many failures in professional life, and problematic relationships. His life can be defined by depression, poverty, and psychotic episodes that ended in suicide in 1890.

Despite many problems and starting to paint less than ten years before his death, he succeeded in producing more than 2,100 works of art, 860 of which are oil paintings.

If you take a closer look at the ‘Famous Paintings of Vincent van Gogh’, you can clearly understand why he is admired by millions around the world and why he is considered one of the most famous Post-Impressionist artists in the world.

The Most Famous Paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

1- The Starry Night, 1889

Location: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA

Dimensions: 28.7 × 36.25 inches

The Starry Night, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night in an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, southern France, in June 1889.

He had entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum on May 8, 1889. This was 6 months after his psychotic episode in Arles when he cut off part of his ear. The Starry Night is one of his most famous paintings and is considered one of the best in art history.

Recommended For You – 10 Amazing Facts About The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

This oil painting depicts a view of van Gogh’s room in the asylum facing the east. Van Gogh used variations of this view more than 20 times and probably painted it from memory. His studio in the asylum was on the ground floor. He also mentioned in a letter he wrote to his brother Theo that his window had iron bars that blocked his view.

2-Self-Portrait of van Gogh, 1889

Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Dimensions: 26 × 21 inches

Self-Portrait of van Gogh, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh | Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh painted more than 35 self-portraits in his lifetime, and this self-portrait is most probably the last he ever created. He painted it in September 1889, while he was a patient at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in southern France.

This self-portrait of Van Gogh very well depicts the artist’s unwell mood. Less than a year after creating this self-portrait, he would point a loaded gun at his chest and pull the trigger, causing his death a few days later.

3- The Potato Eaters, 1885

Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dimensions: 32.3 × 44.9 inches

The Potato Eaters, 1885 by Vincent van Gogh | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh, in his early days of painting, often chose the most oppressed of the villagers to paint and deliberately used dull colors. Browns, grays, dirty greens, and blacks.

The Potato Eaters is a painting made by Vincent van Gogh in April 1885 while he was in Nuenen, the Netherlands. When he moved to live in Paris 2 years later, he described it as the best painting he had ever painted.

4- Starry Night over the Rhône, 1888

Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Dimensions: 28.5 × 36.2 inches

Starry Night over the Rhône, 1888, Vincent van Gogh | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Starry Night over the Rhône is a painting that he painted at night at a location on the banks of the Rhine, just a 2-minute walk from The Yellow House, which he was renting at the time, in Arles.

It is quite similar to Vincent van Gogh’s most famous artwork The Starry Night, which he uses as a background in many of his paintings.

This painting inspired Vincent van Gogh to use the effects of light at night in many of his other paintings. These three paintings, together with a painting he will paint later, took their place among Van Gogh’s most well-known works.

5- Sunflowers, 1888

Location: National Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Dimensions: 37 x 29 inches

Sunflowers, 1888, Vincent van Gogh | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Sunflowers is the name of a series of paintings with the same theme.

The first part of the series was painted during the painter’s stay in Paris in 1887, and the second series was painted during his stay in Arles in 1888.

The first series depicts the flowers in a horizontal position, while the second series depicts the flowers as a bouquet standing in a vase.

It is thought that Van Gogh painted the second series to impress fellow artist Paul Gauguin, whom he expected to visit.

6- The Yellow House (The Street), 1888

Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dimensions: 28.3 × 36 inches

The Yellow House in Arles where Vincent van Gogh stayed | The Yellow House (The Street) by Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890), Arles, September 1888 | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

The Yellow House is sometimes referred to as ‘The Street’ and depicts Vincent van Gogh‘s rented house in Arles.

On the first floor of the house was van Gogh’s studio, and in 1888, Paul Gauguin’s guesthouse, where he stayed for 9 weeks, was on the same floor.

To the left of the painting is a pink building, which van Gogh noted was the restaurant he used to eat at.

The Yellow House was heavily bombed during World War II and later destroyed.

7- Café Terrace at Night, 1888

Location: Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Dimensions: 31.8 × 25.7 inches

Café Terrace at Night), 1888 by Vincent Van Gogh | The Most Famous Paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

In this work of Vincent van Gogh, we see a cafe lighted by a large lamp and a starry sky above it.

While the colors of the night reflect on the cobblestone pavements of the street, people sit on the terrace and enjoy a drink. We can say that Van Gogh described a relaxing scene in which he enjoyed painting, with his impressive colors and his own style.

Café Terrace at Night is also known as ‘The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum’ and its original name was ‘Coffeehouse, in the evening.’

Recommended For You- 16 Secrets of Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent van Gogh.

Although van Gogh did not sign his work, Cafe Terrace at Night, in one of the letters he sent to his sister Wilhelmina, he clearly explained what he was drawing at that time.

In the same letter, in which Van Gogh mentions his painting, which he both named and summarized as ‘The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum‘, which he completed at the age of 35:

“It’s quite true that I may take a blue for a green in the dark, a blue lilac for a pink lilac since you can’t make out the nature of the tone. But it’s the only way of getting away from the conventional black night with a poor, pallid, and whitish light, while in fact, a mere candle by itself gives us the richest yellows and oranges.”

8- Red Vineyard at Arles (1888)

Location: The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia.

Dimensions: 29.5 × 36.6 inches

Red Vineyard at Arles, 1888 by Vincent van Gogh | Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Red Vineyard at Arles is a painting by Vincent van Gogh painted in November 1888. It depicts people working in a vineyard near the city of Arles.

One of the most striking features of this painting is that it is thought to be the only painting van Gogh could sell during his lifetime.

9- The Church at Auvers, 1890

Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Dimensions: 37 in × 29.1 inches

The Church at Auvers, 1890 by Vincent van Gogh. | The Most Famous Paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

The Church at Auvers was painted in June 1890, just a month before Vincent van Gogh committed suicide. In this painting, he was getting nostalgic about his period in Nuenen and referred to this and other similar paintings as ‘Memories of the North.’

The church depicted is located in Place de l’Eglise, Auvers-sur-Oise, France. This town is located about 27 kilometers (17 miles) northwest of Paris.

It has the same theme as his other painting, ‘Wheatfield with Crows’, which has a deeper meaning.

10- Wheatfield with Crows, 1890

Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dimensions: 19.8 × 41 inches

Wheatfield with Crows, 1890, Vincent van Gogh | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Wheatfield with Crows was painted in July 1890, before Vincent van Gogh committed suicide. It is considered one of his greatest works, and some art historians claim it to be his final painting as well, even though there is no certainty about this fact.

It depicts a cloudy sky with crows flying over a wheat field. In the middle of the field is a path that leads nowhere.

Van Gogh wrote in a letter that this painting expresses sadness and extreme loneliness, perhaps because of this feeling of loneliness he took his own life just a few weeks later.

11- Irises, 1889

Location: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA

Dimensions: 28 × 36 inches

Irises, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh | Famous Paintings of Vincent van Gogh

Irises is the name of another series that Vincent van Gogh made during his stay in the asylum in southern France, just like the Sunflowers series. He painted it in May 1889, a few weeks after he came to the hospital.

The paintings depict irises that were growing in the hospital’s garden.

Van Gogh described the paintings as ‘the lightning conductor for my illness,’, referring to the fact that continuing to paint kept him from going completely mad.

It is considered one of the most expensive van Gogh paintings in the world.

12- Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890

Location: Private collection

Dimensions: 23.4 in × 22.0 inches

Portrait of Dr. Gachet) (1st version), 1890 by Vincent van Gogh. | 15 Most Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

The Portrait of Dr. Gachet was painted shortly after Vincent van Gogh had left the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Paul Gachet was a homeopathic* doctor who cared for van Gogh in the last months of his life after he left the asylum.

During his stay at Gachet, he painted more than 70 paintings, including portraits. There are two versions of the portrait, and the first version was sold at an auction in 1990 to a private buyer for $82.5 million.

The present value of the painting is thought to be over $160 million.

*Homeopathy is a pseudo-scientific alternative medicine method based on the belief that a disease can be cured by administering very low doses of substances that can reveal the symptoms of the disease in a healthy person.

13- The Night Café, 1888

Location: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA

Dimensions: 28.5 × 36.3 inches

The Night Café, 1888 by Vincent van Gogh | Famous Paintings of Vincent van Gogh.

The name of Night Café is written in the lower right corner of the painting, just below the painting’s signature. It depicts the interior of the ‘Café de la Gare’ in Arles. Vincent van Gogh painted it in September 1888.

The owner of the Café was Joseph-Michel Ginoux. His wife Maria would later pose for a painting created by both van Gogh and Gauguin called ‘l’Arlésienne,’ which means ‘the woman from Arles.’

Recommended For You- 10 Places from Famous Paintings That You Can Visit in Real Life.

14- The Bedroom, 1889

Location: Musee D’Orsay, Paris, France

Dimensions: 29.1 x 36.2 inches

The Bedroom, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh | Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

The Bedroom is the name of all three versions of this scene painted by Van Gogh. These paintings depict Van Gogh’s simple bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles.

The three different versions can be distinguished from each other by the pictures on the wall to the right.

Van Gogh deliberately decided not to apply the rules of perspective to this scene. He wanted to give this painting a ‘flattened’ view so that it would resemble the Japanese edition. It is one of Vincent van Gogh’s most important artworks.

15- Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889

Location: The Gallery at Somerset House, London, United Kingdom

Dimensions: 24 × 19 inches

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889 by Vincent van Gogh | Famous Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

Recommended For You – Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear Analysis

The Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear is another self-portrait that depicts Vincent van Gogh‘s condition immediately after his psychotic period in Arles.

Paul Gauguin’s visit resulted in an incident in which Vincent cut off part of his left ear and was hospitalized the following day.

The event happened on December 23, 1888, and this painting was made the following month in January 1889.

He painted his right ear as being in a bandage, even though he had cut his left because he used a mirror.

References: