By Prof. Francesco Carelli – University of Milan  

Van Gogh and Britain is  the first   exhibition of the artist’s work at Tate in over 70 years, when a blockbuster show in 1947 attracted record-breaking crowds.   Dubbed by the press as ‘the miracle on Millbank’, Tate’s Van Gogh exhibition was a phenomenon in London and went on to tour to Birmingham and Glasgow. Over 150,000 visitors came to see the exhibition over the course of five weeks including the Queen.

Newspapers compared the queues outside the  gallery to those found outside food shops during rationing (‘And now they queue to see paintings’), attributing its   standout success to the fact that ‘the people are colourstarved’   by the austerity of war-time Britain.

 A letter from a  Tate administrator to the Arts Council even requested  reimbursement for three years’ worth of damage to its floors done in five weeks.

Among the crowds were a whole generation of young British  artists, for whom Van Gogh became a hero and a source of great inspiration. This is one of the stories explored in Tate Britain’s  exhibition, where Van Gogh’s influence is  seen in the work of artists from Matthew Smith to Francis Bacon.

A highlight of the EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain is  the artist’s world-renowned Sunflowers 1888. For the first time, this masterpiece is shown at Tate Britain alongside the British artwork that it inspired,  enabling visitors to experience this much-loved painting in an entirely new context.

Sunflowers entered the national collection originally as part of the Tate Gallery in 1924 where it hung until it was transferred to the National Gallery in 1961. It was first seen in London at Roger Fry’s ground-breaking  exhibition ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’ in 1910. It was lent from the personal collection of Van Gogh’s  sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, who wanted to ensure that Van Gogh was introduced to Britain with  his best work. Many viewers at the time were bewildered by Van Gogh’s unfamiliar style and the press  mocked his paintings. Some British artists however vehemently defended him, and Sunflowers stimulated a  renaissance in British flower painting. Vibrant yellow flowers appeared in works by artists such as Matthew  Smith, Christopher Wood and Jacob Epstein. United for the first time at Tate Britain next Spring, this collection   of paintings  illustrate the legacy Van Gogh inspired among modern British artists.

When Sunflowers next returned to England for an exhibition in 1923 it was not for sale, but Jo van Gogh-Bonger was eventually persuaded to part with the work so it could join Britain’s national collection. In a  moving letter, now in Tate’s archive and featured in the exhibition, she wrote: ‘For two days I have tried to harden my heart against your appeal. I felt as if I could not bear to separate from the picture, I had looked on every day for more than thirty years. But … I know, that no picture would represent Vincent in your famous Gallery in a more worthy manner than the “Sunflowers”, and that he … would have liked it to be there… It is a sacrifice for the sake of Vincent’s glory.’

The painting went on to be the star of Tate’s 1947 exhibition and has since become one of the most recognised paintings in the world. Its temporary return to its old home at Tate Britain, to hang alongside the modern British art that it did so much to inspire, is a significant opportunity to look afresh at this well-known work.