Why did Van Gogh become a legend? He was an outcast in life and art, yet today he’s the most famous painter in the world. In this video, I take on the challenge of painting in his style here in Amsterdam—surrounded by canals, the North Sea, and even the spectacular Amsterdam Sail 2025.
I’ll share my honest view on Van Gogh (spoiler: I’m not a huge fan), explore how he painted water and why it mattered, and ask the big question: why him, and not his equally brilliant contemporaries? To better understand his mystery—his brushstrokes, his colors, his personality—I went to the Van Gogh Museum, studied his rare water scenes, and tried painting a little Dutch landscape near my home: a tree, a bird, the skies, and of course, a canal.