Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). Roses (detail), May 1890. Oil on canvas, 27 15/16 × 35 7/16 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, Gift of Pamela Harriman in memory of W. Averell Harriman.

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890), The Outskirts of Paris (detail), 1886. Oil on canvas, 18 × 211⁄8 in. Private Collection in memory of Marie Wangeman.

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890), Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail), 1890. Oil on canvas, 21 5⁄8 × 25 9/16 in. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, inv. no. 559, 1978.41. © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid.

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), Wheat Field (Le Champ de Blé) (detail), 1888. Oil on canvas. Honolulu Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Richard A. Cooke and Family in memory of Richard A. Cooke, 1946.

This exhibition seeks to immerse viewers in the visual imagination of one of the most beloved artists in the world. Presenting 20 works of art by Van Gogh alongside some 75 objects selected to reflect the surprisingly varied art that he most admired, the show firmly reconnects Vincent to his late 19th-century context. Over 60 artists are represented in the exhibition, including Jules Breton, Anton Mauve, Adolphe Monticelli, Léon-Augustin Lhermitte, Jean-François Raffaëlli and a host of other names less familiar to most American audiences, as well as the better known Romantic master Eugène Delacroix, the artists of the Barbizon school and the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. By juxtaposing celebrated artworks by Van Gogh with works by the many artists he admired, the show seeks to foreground both Vincent's indebtedness to and radical departure from the art world of his day. The exhibition also taps into Van Gogh's literary imagination by displaying first-editions of novels by Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leo Tolstoy and Edgar Allan Poe to conjure up the fictional worlds that enflamed Vincent's inner eye.

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Principal Sponsors:

Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree

Elaine F. Stepanek Foundation

The Luria/Budgor
Family Foundation

Zegar Family Foundation

Major support by:
Gina Jannotta
Nancy and Doug Norberg
Diane Pace Sullivan
Barbara Woods

Additional funding is provided by: Pat Aoyama and Chris Kleveland, Christine and Michael Holland, Robert Lehman Foundation, Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, Dutch Culture USA Program, Santa Barbara Beautiful, the City of Santa Barbara Events and Festivals Grant Program, and SBMA Dead Artists Society.

The exhibition catalogue is made possible through the generosity of the Luria/Budgor Family Foundation.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities

This exhibition was organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art.