Exhibition Symposium

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art presents Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources, an exhibition that seeks to immerse viewers in the visual imagination of one of the most beloved artists in the world. This fresh look at Van Gogh’s influences explores the artist’s relationship to the Barbizon School painters Jean-François Millet and Georges Michel—Van Gogh’s self-proclaimed mentors—as well as to Realists like Jean-François Raffaëlli and Léon Lhermitte and to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The show also explores Van Gogh’s allegiance to the colorism of Eugène Delacroix, his emulation of Adolphe Monticelli, as well as his alliance with the Realist literature of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.

By juxtaposing 20 celebrated artworks by Van Gogh with 75 works by over 60 artists and authors that he admired, the show seeks to foreground both Vincent’s indebtedness to and radical departure from the art world of his day. In conjunction with Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources, on view February 27, 2022 – May 22, 2022, join five scholars for a one-day seminar on the themes of the exhibition. Each 45-minute lecture will be followed by a 10-minute response by a pre-designated discussant.