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Hello and welcome[br]to the van Gogh Exhibition

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at the National Gallery im London.

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Now, the show is called [br]"Poets and lovers"

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and what it contains is 60, yes 60,

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of Van Gogh's most famous pictures,

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some of which are coming [br]to London for the very first time

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and the really interesting thing is

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that everything here was painted

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in the two short years that van Gogh[br]spent in the south of France.

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He arrived in February 1888,

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he left after all kinds of tragedies[br]in May 1890

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but in those two short years [br]the masterpieces poured out of him.

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Leading the way is his view[br]of the yellow house in Arles,

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so this was the home[br]that he made for himself

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and in this tiny little house

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he made most of these paintings[br]that you see around us.

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It's interesting picture [br]for all kinds of reasons.

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This wonderful golden color is one thing

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but if you see that at the back[br]that's the railway line

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that's probably the train [br]that he arrived in Arles,

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on the train from Paris.

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This Café here [br]that's the Night Café in Arles,

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that's where he used to go [br]and get drunk and play billiards

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so that was right next door to the house

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and interestingly you see these lumps[br]in the middle of the road.

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You know, what those are.

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They're actually road works,

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because when Vincent moved[br]into this house

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he asked for the gas to be connected up [br]to the house

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so that he could work at night.

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Gas lighting had just been[br]introduced in Arles.

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Vincent made sure that the yellow house [br]was connected to it.

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Now, the world which [br]van Gogh lived in Arles

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was tiny, really tiny,

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To help you visualize it,

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I've set up this detailed map[br]of the region.

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So, this here that's the big yellow house[br]he lived in on the corner,

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and behind it, the railway station[br]with the train coming in.

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That's just there.

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Next door to it the Night Café,

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the scene of many drinking[br]adventures by Vincent.

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So, when he went out the front door,

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just to the right 50 yards up the road,

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that big view of the Starry Nght[br]that's just here

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and in front of him was the big park,[br]the Poet's Garden

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where all the lovers[br]would stray and meet.

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And then, just past the park,[br]just up the road there,

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that's the brothel where he used[br]to go with Gauguin

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for what they called [br]their "hygienic visits".

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Now, all this the whole [br]of van Gogh's world,

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pretty much everything[br]you see in this show,

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all of that is just a few hundred yards

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of just a tiny bit of the world

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that produced massive amounts[br]of great art.

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His bedroom in Arles.

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This isn't actually the first painting [br]he did of that.

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This is something he did later,

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he did a kind of recreation of it.

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Once he'd had his breakdown[br]and things went wrong,

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he painted it again.

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Now I can't look at this picture[br]without always making a B-line

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for this washstand here.

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So, in the morning[br]Vincent would wash and shave.

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This must be[br]where he kept his razor,

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the razor with which notoriously[br]he would later hack away at his own ear.

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Why did van Gogh choose Arles [br]as his south of France destination?

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It's always puzzled me, I mean,

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he could have gone anywhere[br]in the south of France,

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to some very glamorous places,

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but he chose Arles[br]which at the time was an industrial city.

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It had a port full of cold ships,[br]dark smoky

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and the only thing Arles was famous for[br]at the time

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was the beauty of its women.

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The Arlesiennes, as they were called

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were supposed to be the most beautiful[br]women in France

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and my suspicion, my theory

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is that it was this that attracted [br]Vincent most-

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He was a man desperately[br]searching for love

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and he thought that if he came to Arles

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amongst all these famously[br]beautiful arlesiennes

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would find the partner he was seeking

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and all through the show

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there's so much whispering [br]of love going on.

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Little couples under the trees,

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little couples walking by the river,

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little couples in the park.

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And that didn't ever happe[br]to Vincent in real life

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but it could happen in his art.

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I love these Vincent's views [br]of the olive trees near San Rémy

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where the asylum was.

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There's something about olive trees,

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their gnarled shape,

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the way that they twist and struggle[br]in the dry earth.

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That touched a cord with him

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and for me, their kind of self-portraits,

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each olive tree representing[br]his own struggle.

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I've been looking at van Gogh[br]most of my adult life

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and I thought I'd seen a lot

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but I hadn't seen that,

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I hadn't seen that,[br]I didn't see that.

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There's a lot here[br]that no one has seen before.

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So, there's all kinds of reasons [br]to come to this exhibition

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but one of them [br]is that you'll see a van Gogh

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that perhaps will be[br]a bit unfamiliar to you.