National Gallery to open through the night for Vincent Van Gogh exhibition due to demand

The National Gallery’s Van Gogh: Poets And Lovers exhibition will open overnight during its final weekend - the second time in the institutions history.

The display has already become the third most popular paid exhibition in the London attraction’s history, with 283,499 people viewing it from its opening day on September 14, 2024, to January 7, 2025.

Tickets for the extra night-time viewing slots on January 17 will go on sale on Thursday, with the gallery opening 24 hours– with the first being for Leonardo da Vinci: Painter At The Court of Milan in 2012.

Speaking about the late opening, Sir Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, said: “I am delighted that over 200,000 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.”

The exhibition is the gallery’s first devoted to Vincent Van Gogh, and is also the first anywhere to focus on the artist’s imaginative transformations, featuring more than 60 works and loans from museums and private collections around the world.

A 90-minute in-depth film called Exhibition On Screen: Van Gogh Poets And Lovers – directed by David Bickerstaff, will also show off the display in UK cinemas, featuring interviews with art experts.

National Gallery members are able to visit the exhibition, which closes on January 19, for free.

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