What a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon with the Dutch superstar Vincent van Gogh. Another place just around the corner from our hotel.

The design of this building was commissioned by the Dutch government in 1963. The museum opened in 1973 and has the largest collection of van Gogh’s paintings and drawings. It draws thousands of visitors every year and I can understand why – it is phenomenal.

This purpose built building is great to move around. You feel like you are moving in time with Vincent himself, as you walk with him through his artistic life. And while climbing the stairs, you see pieces of his artwork projected on the walls. It’s hard not to stop and stare.

Vincent was an early adopter of the selfie. You may already have been aware of this. I guess I hadn’t put it together until I was standing in front of a large number of self-portraits. Van Gogh painted 36 self-portraits in the space of ten years. That seems like a lot.

“They say – and I am willing to believe it – that it is difficult to know yourself – but it isn’t as easy to paint yourself either”

Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother Theo, September 1889

The excellent audio guide explains that these are not about vanity. Vincent couldn’t afford to hire a model. Therefore, the best way to hone your art was to paint a self-portrait.

As I stood in front of them, I was filled with sadness for this man. He suffered so terribly with ill mental health for most of his short life.

I realised as I went through the gallery, that he spent most of his life searching for love.

“Then I thought to myself. I’d like to be with a woman. I can’t live without love, without a woman. I couldn’t care a fig for life if there wasn’t something infinite, something deep, something real.” wrote Vincent to his brother Theo in 1881

When he was 28 he fell in love with his cousin and when he proposed she said “no,nay,never”. The next year he fell in love with a pregnant prostitute, who had a daughter. After the baby was born they lived happily until she started working again, at that point Vincent left her.

At 31 Vincent moved home and fell in love with the neighbours daughter Margot. She was happy to marry Vincent but her family opposed the marriage. Sadly Margot poisoned herself after this and although she survived the relationship did not.

While in Paris at the age of 32, Vincent met Agostino Segatori. He fell in love with her. Agostino owned the Cafe du Tambourin which was a gathering spot for artists. Vincent was incapable of paying in cash for his meals. Instead, he used his paintings as his own legal tender.

Unfortunately for Vincent this was not his one true love. When Agostino fell ill Vincent suspected that she had had an abortion or miscarriage and so this love story ended.

Agostina Segatori sitting in the Cafe du Tambourin (1887).

He was destined to a life without the love he so desired. And so you would hope that he would have a life of success as an artist in his time. But sadly this was not the case.

His sister in law Jo can be credited with assisting the world in seeing the talent of Vincent. This relationship as well as the one with his brother Theo is captured beautifully in the museum. You have the opportunity to view some letters between the two. Following his death Jo began selling many of his paintings. And his beloved nephew Vincent Willem for whom he painted Almond Blossoms (1890) (below) was responsible for this very museum.

I guess with great success comes the more sinister side of life. Vincent’s paintings are loved by art lovers and crooks alike. A total of 28 van Gogh paintings have been stolen in the Netherlands. Yes, 28 paintings were taken by six sets of thieves in the last couple of decades. How do you actually sell one of these distinctive paintings? Well you can’t which is why they have all been recovered.

In 1988 three paintings were stolen including the oil sketch The Potato Eaters (1885).

In 1991 one of the twenty paintings stolen was The Sunflowers (1889).

I am going to finish on sunflowers. Vincent wanted to be known as the painter of sunflowers. For him sunflowers symbolised gratitude.

It is said that when his friend Paul Gauguin was coming to the South of France to stay with him. Vincent decorated his room with paintings of sunflowers.

And when he died, his friends brought sunflowers to his funeral.

So beautiful.

This museum is a must visit if you are in Amsterdam and you have an interest in Vincent van Gogh. There are also several other fine artists who are displayed in the museum, who have a connection to Vincent. The audio guide is really good and money well spent.