Van Gogh and the Painters of Light – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the Van Gogh and the Painters of Light quiz, each with a short explanation. Sunflowers, starry skies and the bold world of the Impressionists. Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Which New York museum displays Van Gogh's 1889 painting The Starry Night?
Answer: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
The Starry Night, painted in June 1889 from the window of Van Gogh's asylum room at Saint-Remy-de-Provence, has been in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.
2. Which artist shared the Yellow House in Arles with Van Gogh in 1888?
Answer: Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin moved into Van Gogh's Yellow House at 2 Place Lamartine in Arles in late October 1888, staying about nine weeks until the quarrel that ended with Van Gogh mutilating his own ear that December.
3. Cezanne painted which mountain in Provence dozens of times?
Answer: Mont Sainte-Victoire
Paul Cezanne depicted Montagne Sainte-Victoire, the limestone ridge overlooking his native Aix-en-Provence, in roughly 80 paintings and watercolours between the 1880s and his death in 1906.
4. Monet painted his water lily series in the garden of his home in which village?
Answer: Giverny
Claude Monet lived at Giverny in Normandy from 1883 until 1926, and after buying extra land in 1893 he built the lily pond and Japanese bridge that inspired some 250 water-lily canvases.
5. In which village near Paris did Van Gogh spend his final weeks in 1890?
Answer: Auvers-sur-Oise
Van Gogh left the Saint-Remy asylum in May 1890 and spent his last roughly two months at Auvers-sur-Oise north of Paris, lodging at the Auberge Ravoux under the care of Dr. Gachet until his death in July 1890.
6. Which London gallery displays one of Van Gogh's famous Sunflowers paintings?
Answer: The National Gallery
London's National Gallery owns the yellow-background Sunflowers (15 blooms) that Van Gogh painted in Arles in August 1888; it was bought for the collection in 1924 through the Courtauld Fund.
7. Which Monet painting gave the Impressionist movement its name?
Answer: Impression, Sunrise
Monet's 1872 harbour view of Le Havre, Impression, Sunrise, was shown at the first independent group exhibition in April 1874, where critic Louis Leroy mockingly titled his review 'The Exhibition of the Impressionists'. It hangs in the Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris.
8. Which brother supported Van Gogh financially and received hundreds of his letters?
Answer: Theo
Theo van Gogh, an art dealer in Paris, sent his older brother Vincent money and materials for years; roughly 650 of Vincent's surviving letters are addressed to him. Vincent died in 1890 and Theo just six months later.
9. Paul Gauguin painted many of his late masterpieces while living on which island?
Answer: Tahiti
Gauguin sailed for Tahiti in April 1891 seeking an escape from European civilisation, producing works such as Ia Orana Maria and Where Do We Come From?; he spent his final years in the Marquesas, dying at Atuona in 1903.
10. Degas's sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen famously wears a real fabric what?
Answer: Tutu
Degas's wax Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, shown at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition, wore a real fabric tutu along with ballet slippers, a bodice and a human-hair wig with a ribbon, shocking critics with its realism. The original is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
11. The Starry Night shows the view from Van Gogh's asylum room in which Provence town?
Answer: Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
The Starry Night, painted in June 1889, depicts the view east from Van Gogh's second-floor room at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum near Saint-Remy-de-Provence, with an imagined village added. The canvas has hung at the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941.
12. What nationality was the painter Vincent van Gogh?
Answer: Dutch
Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Zundert in the Netherlands and moved to France in 1886, where he painted most of his best-known works.
13. Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette shows dancers in which hilly Paris district?
Answer: Montmartre
Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876) shows a Sunday afternoon at an open-air dance garden on the Butte Montmartre in Paris. He rented a studio on rue Cortot nearby, and the painting now hangs in the Musee d'Orsay.
14. Which part of his body did Van Gogh famously cut off in 1888?
Answer: Part of his ear
In December 1888 in Arles, after a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh cut off his left ear, or a large part of it.
15. In which city is the Van Gogh Museum?
Answer: Amsterdam
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, opened in 1973, holds the world's largest collection of his work, including around 200 paintings.