Like seeing double: the Amsterdam and the National Gallery Sunflowers hang side by side for the first time in 65 years at London’s National Gallery.
What would be the ultimate blockbuster exhibition? High up anyone’s list would surely be a show of the still lifes of sunflowers that Vincent Van Gogh painted in Provence between 1888 and 1889.
In a remarkable collaboration, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is loaning its magnificent Sunflowers to the National Gallery, where it can be seen side by side with its almost identical predecessor, which happens to be the most popular painting in the collection at Trafalgar Square, according to annual postcard sales. It is the first time the two paintings have been seen together in London in more than 65 years. The result is the exhibition equivalent of a game of spot-the-difference.