Celebrating Van Gogh, the writer

Vincent van Gogh was not only a prolific painter but also a compulsive writer of letters. As part of the 150th birthday celebrations for the Dutch master, researchers have pieced together his words and his art, traced his inspirations and discovered insights into one of the world’s most studied artists.

Despite the theft of two paintings from the Van Gogh Museum two months ago, galleries and private collectors lent the Amsterdam facility dozens of paintings and sketches that the 19th century artist had admired and mentioned in his letters.

They go on display today in an exhibit called “Vincent’s Choice,” which runs through June 15. It is the first of several events to mark the artist’s birth on March 30, 1853.

The exhibition of some 200 artworks, many of them matching Van Gogh’s works with those that influenced them, is one of the museum’s most ambitious projects, and the first to give a broad sample of the painter’s taste in fine art.