Van Gogh Museum — Plan Your Visit

This is our ultimate guide to the Van Gogh Museum. It is one of Amsterdam’s most popular museums. We regularly visit it ourselves — particularly for the special exhibitions. They are included in the ticket price.

Lots of helpful information! Estimated reading time: 24 minutes

An Amsterdam must-see: Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is one of the most popular museums you can visit in Amsterdam. It houses the world’s largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

The museum also displays works by Van Gogh’s friends and contemporaries. This allows you to see his life and work in context – a helpful and memorable way to enjoy Van Gogh’s art.

In addition to the permanent collection, temporary exhibitions highlight the people, places and events that influenced Vincent van Gogh.

Article continues below ticket information

Van Gogh Museum Tickets

When you buy your ticket you have the option to include an Audio Guide. Highly recommended!

More information about your tickets:

• To visit the Van Gogh Museum you must book timed-entry tickets in advance. No tickets are sold at the entrance.
• You pick the date and time, subject to availability
  • There is a limited number of tickets available for each day and starting time
  • Choose the “with audio guide” option. It is well worth it.
• The museum accepts printed and mobile vouchers
• Your tickets give you access to both the permanent collection and the temporary exhibitions

FAQ: VAN GOGH MUSEUM FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Alternative: Free Entrance with the I amsterdam City Card

If you’re planning to see all three museums, consider buying the I amsterdam City Card. It provides free entrance to 70+ museums, along with a host of other benefits — such as city-wide public transport by metro, tram, bus, and ferry.

Van Gogh Museum: Opening Hours, Busiest Days, and Best Time To Visit

• Busiest days:
  • Friday (all day),
  • Saturday 10:00 – 17:00 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.), and
  • Sunday 10:00 – 17:00 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m.)
• Busiest times: Every day between 11 am and 3+ pm.
• Best time to visit: Any day after 17:00 (5 p.m.).

Note: Though this popular museum is busy at times, the timed-entry ticket system ensures that you will have a perfect experience regardless of the day and time you visit.

Since the introduction of the new ticket system the Van Gogh Museum has received the highest visitor appreciation ratings ever.

Map: How to get to the Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is on Museumplein in Amsterdam, between the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum.

The museum entrance is at Museumplein 6. (Dated travel guide books — and many ‘tourist information’ websites — list the old address, at Paulus Potterstraat 7.)

You’ll find the Van Gogh Museum at Museumplein (literally: Museum Square), in between the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum.

© OpenStreetMap contributors CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Maps

Get to the Van Gogh Museum by Tram

Buy your Public Transport Tickets here

Trams 2, 3, 5 and 12, 16 and 24 have stops near the museum. So does the Amsterdam Airport Express (Bus 397) that shuttles between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and the city.

The nearest stops are Van Baerlestraat (tram 2, 5 or 12) or Museumplein (tram: 3, 5 or 12, bus: 347 or 357).

From Amsterdam Central Station (Amsterdam Centraal Station)

• Tram 2 or 12
• Tram 11: change at Leidseplein to tram 2, 5 or 12
• Metro 52 (Noord/Zuid route) until De Pijp station, change to tram 3 (direction Zoutkeetsgracht) or tram 12 (direction Central station)

From Zuid WTC Station

• Tram 5 (direction Westergasfabriek)

From Amsterdam Amstel Station

• Tram 12

From Amsterdam Sloterdijk Station

• Tram 19, change at Leidseplein to tram 2, 5 or 12

From Muiderpoort Station

• Tram 3 (direction Zoutkeetsgracht)

Note: The trams are operated by GVB; the buses listed here are not.³ This means that holders of the I amsterdam City Card can travel to the Van Gogh Museum free of charge by tram, but not by bus. (This pass also provides free entrance to the museum.)⁴

Get there by Taxi

If you prefer to avoid the hustle and bustle of public transport, and you’ve heard nightmare stories about taxis in Amsterdam do what we do: use Uber instead.

The Van Gogh Museum’s Permanent Collection

The museum owns the largest collection of paintings by Van Gogh in the world. This includes some 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and more than 700 of Van Gogh’s letters.

Arranged by Themes instead of Chronologically

The collection is displayed thematically rather than chronologically. For instance:

• Van Gogh’s rural scenes,
• the artist among his friends, such as Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,
• Van Gogh’s models,
• his painting techniques, and
• the painter’s mental decline

This allows visitors to see what inspired Van Gogh, and which artists in turn were inspired by him.

The galleries are laid out well, making the museum a joy to visit. (We know, since we come here on a regular basis.)

Will I get to see Van Gogh’s Sunflowers?

Van Gogh painted lots of sunflowers (and other flowers as well), including five versions of his best-known sunflowers painting.

One of these versions is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The other versions are at the National Gallery in London, Neue Pinakothek in Munich, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art in Tokyo.

In 2019 extensive research led the museum’s experts to the conclusion that the 130-year-old ‘Sunflowers’ painting, created in 1889, is stable but fragile. For this reason the painting will no longer travel.

Is “The Starry Night” by Van Gogh on display at the museum?

No, unfortunately not. The Starry Night is at The Museum of Modern Art — MoMA in New York. The Museum acquire the painting in 1941. After Vincent died, his brother Theo inherited his paintings. He died a short while later. In order to establish Vincent’s recognition in the art world, Jo — Theo’s widow — strategically sold the paintings to influential art collectors or well-known museums. The Starry Night was sold to Georgette P. van Stolk, the secretary of the Rotterdam Art Society (“Rotterdamsche Kunstkring”). She sold the painting to French art dealer Paul Rosenberg, of Paris and New York. It was through Rosenberg that the Museum of Modern Art acquired the painting.

Temporary Van Gogh Exhibitions

Aside from the permanent collection, the museum also has special exhibitions focusing on various aspects of Van Gogh’s life and work.

Often these exhibitions feature works by his contemporaries — showing, for instance, how the painter was influenced by people, places, and events.

The current show is a good example:

Current Temporary Exhibition: Colour as Language

Exhibition: Etel Adnan – Colours as Language
May 20, 2022 — September 4, 2022

Access to this temporary exhibition is included with your Van Gogh Museum ticket.

Discover Etel Adnan’s colourful artworks in combination with those of Vincent van Gogh. Colour as Language is this versatile artist’s first retrospective in the Netherlands.

Etel Adnan (1925–2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and visual artist.

She grew up in Beirut, studied in Paris and California, and spent years living and working in the two latter places.

Adnan died on 14 November 2021 at the age of 96, just as this retrospective at the Van Gogh Museum was being prepared.

While the emphasis of this special exhibition is on Adnan’s works, several paintings by Vincent van Gogh are included. This is done to highlight the fact that Adnan saw Van Gogh as a great inspiration. But it also shows how both artists painted nature in different ways.

Interactive Multimedia Audio Guide or Live Tour Guide?

Interactive Multimedia Audio Guide

The Van Gogh Museum has a professionally produced interactive multimedia audio tour guide available. The guide covers both the permanent collection and the special, temporary exhibitions. It is available in 11 languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese and Korean.

As frequent visitors to the museum we highly recommend this multimedia guide. It highlights many aspects and details you would otherwise miss. The tour provides insights into the life and work of Vincent van Gogh, and further helps you to view his work in context.

The small, lightweight guide hangs around your neck or is held in your hand. Either way, you can easily interact with the screen.

You can either follow the suggested route through the museum or visit only the sections of your choice. And you’re in control: you can go at your own pace, and skip paintings, sections, or entire floors if you wish.

You can order the Audio Guide along with your ticket. Select the “With audio guide” option. Pick up your guide inside the museum. (Note: Children under age 18 can use the multimedia guide free of charge).

Live Tour Guide

Of course, the one drawback of a multimedia tour is that you cannot ask it questions. That is one reason many first-time visitors prefer to visit the Van Gogh Museum with a live tour guide.

If this is your first or only visit to the museum, we suggest your seriously consider using a guide.

Number of Visitors (Take a guess before looking)

The Van Gogh museum is one of Amsterdam’s most popular tourist attractions. In 2019 — the year before the COVID-19 pandemic started — it welcomed 2.10 million visitors.

That means the Van Gogh Museum is ranked as the second most-visited museum in the Netherlands.

Notably, nearly 90% of visitors rate their visit as ‘very good’ or ‘excellent.’ Small wonder that a study revealed Europeans rate the museum the most admired art gallery in Europe. ⁵

Virtual Van Gogh Museum

If you can’t visit the museum in person but would like to see its collection anyway, visit Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum via Google’s Art Project.

You’ll be able to ‘walk’ through the museum, zoom in on art objects, and get extra information about them.

Van Gogh Museum’s Buildings

The original building that houses the van Gogh Museum collection was designed by architect Gerrit Rietveld. It opened in 1973.

In 1999 an exhibition wing by the Japanese modernist architect Kisho Kurokawa was added, the design and placement of which many Amsterdammers didn’t like. The abstract design means that a tall, half-moon wall of ‘concrete’ is facing the grass of museumplein.

As for us, we think Van Gogh himself would not have been amused, to say the least. Your mileage may differ, as they say.

Inside: Café Le Tambourin

Ready for lunch? The Van Gogh Museum includes the pleasant Café Le Tambourin (€€ – €€€). The food is served cafeteria style, but is beautifully presented, and tasty. Many visitors express surprise to find such high quality, delicious food served at a museum restaurant.

Having your lunch here instead of at one of the eateries lining the Museumplein is an excellent choice.

Museum Shop

If we were to receive €1 for each tourist we spot carrying the distinctive, triangular Van Gogh poster package we’d be able to take more vacations.

The Museum Shop carries an extensive range of Van Gogh books, posters, trinkets, and gadgets. You can buy anything from key rings to eye glass cleaning cloths, and from fashion items to luggage — all sporting a variety of Van Gogh prints.

Oh, and the shop carries some 1,500 different books.

Tip: Instead of spending time and money in the museum’s shop, realize that there is a great collection of Van Gogh books, posters, paintings, and more at Amazon.com.

You will likely save money. Plus, you will not have to worry that your purchases get damaged in your luggage.

Museum Director Emilie Gordenker

Emilie Gordenker is the Director of the Van Gogh Museum. The Dutch-American art historian succeeded Alex Rüger on February 1, 2020. Rüger had been in charge for 13 years. He left in the summer of 2019 after his appointment as the new head of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Rüger oversaw major renovations and a full redisplay of the collection. During his tenure, visitor numbers grew from 1.4 million to about 2.2 million a year. In 2018 and 2019, the Van Gogh Museum was Amsterdam’s second most visited museum.

Gordenker is the first female director of the museum. Her task is “to continue the successful course of the museum” but also “to broaden the programming and the public.”

Van Gogh Museum: Art or Commerce?

“Since the arrival of Emilie Gordenker as director, the battle for directions within the Van Gogh Museum is more visible than ever: will art or commerce win?” That’s the lede to an article in Amsterdam daily Het Parool regarding what it calls a “tribal struggle” within the museum.

The appointment of Gordenker, at the start of 2020, exposed the dividing lines between the two groups:

• The art historians on the one hand, interested in maintaining and building the museum’s international reputation as a knowledge institute
• The bean counters on the other hand, who want to make sure the museum stays as independent as possible from donors and state subsidies.

One would think the two groups would play nice together. But the commercial branch thinks the museum spends money too easily. It is worried that Gordenker wants to make the Van Gogh Museum more dependent on donors and government subsidies.

Case in point for them is a biography about Jo Bonger, Van Gogh’s sister-in-law who became a key player in the growth of Vincent’s fame. Published by the museum in 2019, the highly-praised tome was 10 years in the making. That means, at an annual salary of roughly 70,000 euros, biographer Hans Luijten was paid around 700.000 euros for a book that serves a small niche in the market. ¹Luijten is a senior researcher at the museum.

On the art side there are complaints about an overgrown merchandise department with 1500 products:

The merchandisers point out that the proceeds allow the museum to do lots of “nice things.” But, as noted, they also suggest the money is at times spent too easily.

For instance,

Unfortunately, delving deeper into this issue goes beyond the scope of this article. On our part we can assure you that you will thoroughly enjoy your visit to the museum. Van Gogh’s art speaks for itself. This brief behind-the-scenes look reminds us that the merchandising is, perhaps, a necessary “evil” that allows us to view those paintings in the first place.

As for the biography, an English translation is slated to be published later this year. And after an extensive article in New York Times Magazine by Russell Shorto about ‘The Woman who made Van Gogh‘, conversations with film producers have commenced.

Additional Practical Information

Address

Museumplein 6
1071 DJ Amsterdam

See: How to get to the Van Gogh Museum

Website
Van Gogh Museum

Luggage / Cloakroom

Jackets and handbags are allowed in the museum, but rucksacks, umbrellas and larger backpacks must be placed in the cloakroom.

Note: They’re not referring to luggage-sized bags and packs.

There are no lockers at the museum, so do not bring your luggage! Leave it in your hotel, or at the luggage storage facility inside Amsterdam Central Station.

Wi-Fi

Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the museum, but please limit the use of your mobile phone.

Accessibility

The Van Gogh Museum provides excellent accessibility for visitors using a wheelchair or walking aid.

Both buildings include roomy elevators.

The museum has a disabled parking space as well as a dedicated drop off/pick up area.

There is a priority entrance, bypassing the queues. A companion will not have to purchase a ticket.⁶

Properly harnessed guide dogs are welcome.

Large print guides to the exhibit are available.

Photography / Filming

You cannot take photos or film videos within the museum, except in designated areas such as the ‘selfie wall.’

That said, journalists, bloggers and vloggers who wish to film or take photographs may request a press visit.

Van Gogh Museum Ticket Options

How do the Dutch pronounce Vincent van Gogh

The Dutch language isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. No problem. Most of us speak English. But if you want to impress us by trying to pronounce Van Gogh’s name in Dutch, have a try:

We have seen and heard Vincent van Gogh’s name misspelled as Van Goff, Van Goth, Vangogh, and Van Koch.

Hotels near the Van Gogh Museum

Amsterdam is a small and compact city with an excellent, fine-meshed public transportation system. This means that you do not necessarily have to look for a hotel near the Van Gogh Museum.

However, Museumplein is also home to the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum – and the world-famous Concertgebouw is just a stone’s throw away. Vondelpark and Amsterdam city center are also not far away.

On a Personal Note

I first visited the Van Gogh Museum in 1977, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

At the time I worked at a youth hostel in the center of Amsterdam, and I wondered why so many of our hippie guests — on their way to or from India — felt ‘compelled’ to see the museum.

That visit ignited my interest in impressionist and post-impressionist paintings — which turned into a lifelong love affair.

To this day I re-visit the museum on a regular basis, now accompanied by my lovely wife. We marvel again and again at Van Gogh’s wonderful paintings, ponder his life story, and continue to learn more about his place among the artists of his time.

It never gets boring — for the same reason you can enjoy your favorite songs, music, poems, and movies over and over.

At DutchAmsterdam we have heard similar comments from many tourists who have visited both the city and the museum multiple times.

They return not just for the special, temporary exhibitions, but also to reacquaint themselves — face to face — with their favorite paintings.

By the way, if you happen to see us there, say “Hi!” We’ll buy you a coffee or beer.

More Amsterdam Tourist Information

• 
  Public Transport to and from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
• 
  Van Gogh Museum — Plan Your Visit
• 
  Keukenhof 2023: seven million tulips and other flowers
• 
  Amsterdam Museums
• 
  Amsterdam King’s Day 2023: All-Day Citywide Street Party!
• 
  Anne Frank House – one of Amsterdam’s top 3 museums

This article was first published in June, 2007, and is updated when necessary. For instance, when there are special exhibitions on, in addition to the museum’s permanent collection.

The authors, Amsterdam locals Anton and Janet, regularly visit the Van Gogh Museum.

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