National Gallery Van Gogh exhibition to open 24 hours as art lovers follow in footsteps of Freud and Hockney as rare night-time visitors

The National Gallery’s Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers (14 September 2024 ‒ 19 January 2025) is to open all night on Friday 17 January during the sell-out exhibition’s final weekend. Tickets will go on sale for the extra timed slots (from 9pm on Friday 17 January until 10am Saturday 18 January) this morning (Thursday 9 January 2025.)

With over 280,000 visitors so far - and tickets for some extra opening hours for the last weekend of 'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' already snapped up by mid-December - the Gallery has decided to open through the night for only the second time in its history (the first being for Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan in 2012.)

The Gallery’s Director Sir Gabriele Finaldi hopes that visitors will be inspired by famous artists such as Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Francis Bacon who visited the Gallery during the early hours of the morning for inspiration.  

A devoted admirer of European painting and regular visitor since his earliest days in London, Lucian Freud had a close association with the National Gallery: ‘I use the gallery as if it were a doctor,’ Freud said, ‘I come for ideas and help.’* 

Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, London, says: ‘I am delighted that over 280,000 people have visited 'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' and we look forward to welcoming more people to the exhibition as it comes to its final weeks. As part of our opening for the last weekend our visitors will have the rare and special opportunity to experience Van Gogh’s pictures during the night and early hours of the morning following in the footsteps of artists such as Freud, Bacon and Hockney who came here during those times to take inspiration from the Gallery’s collection.’  

As 'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' enters its last days visitors are advised to take advantage of this extended opening or to become a National Gallery Member for their best chance of securing a ticket to the critically acclaimed exhibition.  

Members also receive priority views of a range of temporary ticketed and free exhibitions which currently include NG Stories, a digital exhibition of the Gallery’s history for its 200th anniversary, Discover Constable & The Hay Wain both of which have recently received over 100,000 visitors, as well as Parmigianino: The Vision of Saint Jerome and 2024 National Gallery Artist in Residence Katrina Palmer: The Touch Report.  

This year also sees the second of the Gallery’s two ticketed exhibitions celebrating its 200th anniversary Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300‒1350 (8 March ‒ 22 June 2025,) which reunites paintings from museums, churches and private collections around the world by some of the greatest Italian artists of the 14th century. This critically acclaimed exhibition is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. 

Other ticketed exhibitions include José María Velasco: A View of Mexico (29 March ‒ 17 August 2025), the first in the UK devoted to this much-loved 19th-century Mexican artist; and Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists (13 September 2025 ‒ 8 February 2026), the Gallery’s first ever exhibition devoted to the Neo-Impressionist art movement. Featuring works by Anna Boch, Jan Toorop, Paul Signac and Georges Seurat, many of the pictures on display in the exhibition are from the collection of Helene Kröller-Müller (1869‒1939), at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, in the Netherlands.

Among the NG200 celebrations this year will be the re-opening of the Sainsbury Wing on 10 May together with the unveiling of The Wonder of Art, the Gallery’s most extensive rehang of the collection for several years. A new Supporters House, for Members and other supporters, and a new Learning Centre, will open in the spring.  

'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' is the National Gallery’s first exhibition devoted to Vincent van Gogh (1853‒1890) and is also the first anywhere to focus on the artist’s imaginative transformations. It has over 60 works and loans from museums and private collections around the world. 

There is also an opportunity to enjoy the exhibition in cinemas across the UK and Europe in the 90-minute, in-depth film 'Exhibition on Screen: Van Gogh Poets and Lovers'. Directed by David Bickerstaff, the film has close-up photography of the works, and insights from the exhibition’s curators Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle, as well as art critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston and artist Lachlan Goudie. 

*Lucian Freud quote from Michael Kimmelman’s 'Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere' (Random House, 1998).

Exhibition supported by

Lead Philanthropic Supporter Kenneth C. Griffin

With additional support from

David and Molly Lowell Borthwick

Adrian Sassoon and Edmund Burke

Notes to editors

IMAGE CREDITS:
(from left): Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888; oil on canvas 92.1 × 73 cm, Bought, Courtauld Fund, 1924, © The National Gallery, London; 

Vincent van Gogh, 'Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse)', 1889, oil on canvas, 92.7 x 72.7 cm, Bequest of John T. Spaulding (48.548) © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; 

Vincent van Gogh, 'Sunflowers', 1889, oil on canvas, 92.4 × 71.1 cm, The Mr. and Mrs. Carroll S. Tyson, Jr., Collection (1963-116-19) © Philadelphia Museum of Art

Publicity images can be obtained from https://press.nationalgallery.org.uk/ 

NOTES TO EDITORS

'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' is part of NG200: 200 years of the National Gallery. On 10 May 2024, the 200th anniversary of the Gallery’s foundation, a year-long festival of art, creativity and imagination began and continues across the UK, and around the world, and at our home in London. This will lead us into our third century of bringing people and paintings together. For more information go to: nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/ng200-programme 

'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers'
14 September 2024 ‒ 19 January 2025 
The National Gallery
Rooms 1‒8
Admission charge
Members go free  

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The National Gallery
The National Gallery is one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Founded by Parliament in 1824, the Gallery houses the nation’s collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the late 13th to the early 20th century. The collection includes works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Bellini, Cezanne, Degas, Leonardo, Monet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rubens, Titian, Turner, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and Velázquez. The Gallery’s key objectives are to care for and enhance the collection and provide the best possible access to visitors. Admission free.

Kenneth C. Griffin
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Citadel and Founder of Griffin Catalyst, Kenneth C. Griffin is the exhibition’s Lead Philanthropic Supporter.

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