“Starry Night”, all night, as a Van Gogh blockbuster ends

The moment well after midnight when one day slips into the next is usually a lonely time, observed by security guards and nurses, insomniacs and students preparing for exams. But this weekend, at the National Gallery in London, thousands of people gathered. They came from Friday to Saturday to see some of the last paintings ever created by Vincent van Gogh.

“There’s intrigue,” said visitor Digenis Koumas, reflecting on the artist’s appeal. “It’s a kind of enigma, his life. The struggles, the battles he had with himself, with his psyche.

Koumas, like many other art lovers, had interrupted his circadian rhythms and braved London’s late-night public transport for one last glimpse of “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers,” which remained open all night in an effort to meet visitors. asks before it closes on Sunday. In a statement Monday, the museum said it was the most popular ticketed event in its history, with nearly 335,000 visits. Nearly 20,000 of them were present last weekend.

For many visitors, Van Gogh’s spectacle was as poignant as it was beautiful. The 61 pieces in the exhibition were all created in the two years before Van Gogh’s suicide in 1890, at the age of 37.

Koumas had already seen the show at least eight times, he said, but he wanted to see it a little longer.

“You see his paintings,” Koumas said, “and you see him too.”