Go Van Gogh!

Going to museums might not be the first thing you do in Amsterdam, but it should certainly be on the to-do list. That's because the Van Gogh Museum features the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh works in the world.

Van Gogh, born and raised in the Netherlands in the 19th century, is famous for his mental illness and for insanely chopping off his ear, and the home country museum doesn't try to gloss over any of this. In fact, the museum currently features a collection of his letters that give hints into his state of mind. The works are also displayed chronologically to show how his mental state changed and seemingly bled through into the art. In fact, a work created just weeks before his suicide displays an ominous wheat field and a sky filled with crows.

Remarkably, the tortured artist was still relatively unknown when he died at age 37 in 1890, but within a decade, there were retrospectives being held around the world. His brilliant and varied works, under appreciated in his time, were suddenly thrust into the limelight and would become a foundational cornerstone for the modern art movement. The Van Gogh Museum -- though missing crucial pieces like Starry Night and Starry Night Over the Rhone -- does feature many significant pieces like the Potato Eaters, Bedroom in Arles and a painting from his Sunflowers series.

The Van Gogh Museum has been open for over 35 years with a new wing opened in '99. While serious art fans will also need to visit NYC's Museum of Modern Art for pieces like "Starry Night," the artist's dedicated museum in Amsterdam is the place to see the full spectrum of Van Gogh's greatness and unfortunate weakness. It's an art collection not to be missed!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.