News of: Wednesday, July 06 2005,

Van Gogh exhibition highlights rarely seen drawings

Before he put paint to canvas, Vincent van Gogh worked with pencil and ink, training himself in perspective, composition and the human form.

Now known for the vibrant colors of his paintings, Van Gogh continued sketching throughout his brief career, producing masterpieces of draftsmanship that rank among his great works.

The Van Gogh Museum put more than 100 of the artist's 1,200 surviving drawings on exhibition, showing the development of his craftsmanship from 1880 over 10 years of work.

The works have been brought together from public and private collections throughout the world with major loans from the J. Paul Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The drawings are seldom displayed due to their sensitivity to light - some of them have not been shown in public for many years.

The exhibition will be last until September 18 of this year.