The exhibition – named Poets and Lovers – includes a Sunflowers painting which has not travelled outside the United States since it was acquired in 1935.
It his part of a triptych of works being presented together – two Sunflower paintings, with La Berceuse, a painting of a maternal figure, in the middle.
Its presentation is significant as Van Gogh suggested having the paintings shown this way to his brother, Theo, before he died.
Dr Gabriele Finaldi, the director of the National Gallery, said the show is the gallery’s first exhibition entirely dedicated to Van Gogh, and that “museums and collectors had been astoundingly generous in lending great paintings to this show”.
In her review, Laura Freeman of the Times said, external she was usually “sceptical about ‘once-in-a-century’ exhibitions” but added: “In this case, believe the hype”.
“This is a beautifully put-together exhibition about a blisteringly original vision,” she wrote.
“The paintings don’t invite you to look at them, they ambush you and demand it.”
The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones was, external similarly complimentary in another five-star review, commenting that the “daring” show “loves him as he deserves”.
“Van Gogh, here, is the first completely rule-breaking modernist and he just gets ever more radical,” he said.
