Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam: What to See, History and Visitor Guide

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam holds the world’s largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh: more than 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 750 letters, almost everything that remained in the family’s hands after his death in 1890. It stands on the Museumplein, next to the Rijksmuseum, and with nearly two million visitors a year it is one of the most visited museums in Europe. This guide sums up what you’ll see, how the route through the museum is organized, and the practical details: tickets, opening hours and how to get there. Reviewed in September 2026.

What to see at the Van Gogh Museum, floor by floor

The route through the main building is chronological and follows the stages of his life, so it makes more sense if you first read the Van Gogh biography or the pages for each period in the catalog.

Ground and first floors: the beginnings and Nuenen (1880–1885)

The drawings from The Hague and Drenthe, the studies of peasant heads and the work that closes this period, The Potato Eaters (1885), his first ambitious painting and the one he considered his best work for years. Here you see the dark, earthy Van Gogh that hardly anyone associates with him. You’ll find the background on the Nuenen (1883–1885) page.

Paris (1886–1888): color

In two years in Paris his palette changed completely through contact with the Impressionists, the pointillism of Seurat and Signac, and Japanese prints. The museum has the best series of self-portraits from this period (more than twenty, painted because he couldn’t afford models), Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette and the copies of Japanese prints. More in Paris (1886–1888).

Arles (1888–1889): the works everyone knows

This is the most crowded room. Sunflowers (the January 1889 version, a repetition of the one in London), The Bedroom (the first version, from October 1888), The Yellow House, The Sower and the portraits of the Roulin family. Works by Gauguin and Bernard that they exchanged with Vincent are also shown here. Background in Arles (1888–1889).

Saint-Rémy and Auvers (1889–1890): the end

From his year in the asylum at Saint-Rémy, the museum has Almond Blossom (1890), painted for the birth of his nephew, and several landscapes with cypresses and olive trees. From his last seventy days in Auvers, Wheatfield with Crows, Tree Roots (probably his last painting) and the portraits of Dr. Gachet’s circle. More in Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise.

The letters

The collection includes about 750 letters, most of them to his brother Theo. They are displayed in rotation in cases next to the works they mention, and they are what turn the visit into a story rather than a string of paintings. All of them are published and translated at vangoghletters.org.

Full list: all the Van Gogh Museum paintings that have a page on this site, arranged by period.

Travel guide: Van Gogh in Amsterdam: his stay in 1877–1878 and the city’s museums with his work. And if you’re also going to Otterlo, see the guide Van Gogh in Drenthe and the Kröller-Müller.

What’s not in Amsterdam

Many visitors look for paintings that are in other museums. The Starry Night is at MoMA in New York; Café Terrace at Night and The Sower at Sunset are at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, an hour from Amsterdam and home to the world’s second-largest collection; Starry Night over the Rhône, The Church at Auvers and the Portrait of Dr. Gachet (one version) are at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The full list is in where to see Van Gogh’s paintings.

History of the museum

When Vincent died in 1890, his paintings passed to Theo, who died six months later. Theo’s widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, kept the collection, organized the first exhibitions and published the letters: without her, neither Van Gogh’s fame nor this museum would exist. Her son, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890–1978), the baby Almond Blossom was painted for, set up the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1960 and in 1962 handed the collection over to the Dutch state on condition that a museum be built.

The main building was designed by Gerrit Rietveld, the De Stijl architect, and opened in 1973, almost ten years after his death. In 1999 the temporary exhibition wing by Kisho Kurokawa was added, the elliptical shape you see from the square, and in 2015 the glass entrance hall that links the two buildings and faces the Museumplein. The collection has grown with purchases and donations of works by Van Gogh’s contemporaries (Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bernard, Monticelli) that help explain where his painting came from.

Tickets, hours and getting there

• Tickets: €25 for adults, free for under-18s, €16 for EU/EEA students. Online only, with a time slot; there is no ticket office. Details and a comparison of where to buy in Van Gogh Museum tickets.
• Hours: daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays until 9 p.m. On some days in fall and winter it closes at 5 p.m. (shown when you book).
• Address: Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam. Trams 2, 5 or 24 from Central Station to the Museumplein stop; Q-Park parking garage under the square.
• How long: two or three hours at a relaxed pace; 90 minutes for the highlights. The audio tour, available in English and 13 other languages (€3.75), can be added when you book your ticket.
• Combining visits: the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk are on the same square; the Kröller-Müller in Otterlo makes a day trip from Amsterdam.

Tips for your visit

Book the first time slot of the morning or a Friday evening to see Sunflowers without the crowds. Leave coats and large backpacks at the free cloakroom by the entrance. If you’re going with kids, the museum has a family route and weekend activities; this site’s Van Gogh for kids section is handy for preparing the visit. And if you only have time for one thing, make it following the chronological order of the floors: it’s the only way to see, in two hours, how a painter of brown pictures became the Van Gogh of Almond Blossom.