Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom at Arles, October 1889. Oil on canvas, 22 11/16 x 29 1/8 in. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. © RMN-Grand Palais/Hervé Lewandowski/Art Resource, NY.

If all you got from it was the opportunity to stand in front of Vincent van Gogh’s heartbreakingly beautiful painting The Bedroom in Arles, the upcoming exhibition at The Phillips Collection would be well worth the visit. After all, this will be DC’s first van Gogh exhibition in fifteen years, and the first in the Phillips’ history.

There’s more, however. This exhibit is an exquisite study of the artist’s process.

In 1889, Vincent van Gogh set up his easel on a village road and hastily painted an oil sketch of the scene on an improvised canvas of stretched fabric. Later that year he would paint it again, on a proper canvas sent by his brother Theo. Continue reading →