Highlights of the Upcoming Cultural Season

On Display This AutumnWhistler. Dandy and Disruptor

16 October 2026 to 10 January 2027
This autumn, the Van Gogh Museum and The Mesdag Collection, in collaboration with Tate Britain, present the largest European retrospective of James McNeill Whistler’s work in thirty years – and the first ever in the Netherlands.

Meet James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903): painter and printmaker, aesthete and enfant terrible. Whistler is considered one of the most important artists of the 19th century. With his belief that art – like music – should above all evoke a mood, he helped shape modern art. His rebellious nature and outspoken views regularly brought him into conflict with critics and patrons.

Vincent van Gogh, a contemporary of Whistler’s, admired his work. They shared a fascination with Japanese art and pushed the boundaries of what art could be.

More about the exhibition

The exhibition Whistler. Loving the Netherlands runs concurrently at The Mesdag Collection in The Hague, focusing on Whistler’s visits to the Netherlands and work he produced while there.

Friday 23 October 2026, tickets on sale from 14 September
As part of Amsterdam Dance Event, the Van Gogh Museum explores the nocturnal worlds of James McNeill Whistler. Drawing on the exhibition Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor, the museum brings together painting, music and atmosphere in an evening programme featuring the Amsterdam based band Devon Rexi and a to-be-announced artist responding to Whistler’s famous Nocturnes, each playing two sets, alternating and complementing one another throughout the evening.

As in Whistler’s work, the evening is not about narrative, but mood: mist, light, shadow, sound and the emotion of the city at night. The artists’ collective uncloud offers a new visual interpretation of Whistler’s work. During ADE, the experimental energy of London meets the nocturnal creativity of Amsterdam.

1 October 2026 to 4 January 2027
One hundred prints, one hundred stories, and always the moon. In the focused presentation Yoshitoshi. Master of the Moon, the Van Gogh Museum presents the famous series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885–90) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–92).

The Japanese printmaker brings historical figures, warriors, lovers and mythical beings to life in powerful, colourful compositions. The presentation reveals why Yoshitoshi is regarded as the last great master and innovator of Japanese printmaking, while also exploring his connection with Vincent van Gogh, who collected and closely studied his work.

Find out more about the Yoshitoshi exhibition

12 February to 20 June 2027
In spring 2027, the Van Gogh Museum, in collaboration with the Petit Palais in Paris, presents the first ever retrospective of Eva Gonzalès (1847–1883). During her lifetime, Gonzalès was acclaimed by art critics and admired by her contemporaries, but after her untimely death, she largely disappeared from art history.

She was an ambitious artist who, as Edouard Manet’s only student, consciously forged her own artistic path and became an innovative voice in the Parisian art world. This exhibition brings her work back into the spotlight and gives it the attention it deserves. Featuring loans from international museums and private collections, the exhibition brings together her delicate paintings and pastels for the first time.

More about the Eva Gonzalès exhibition

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IMAGE CAPTION:

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter, 1872, oil on canvas, 74.9 × 53.3 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Henry Glover Stevens in memory of Ellen P. Stevens and Mary M. Stevens, Photo credit: © Detroit Institute of Arts / Bridgeman Images