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The public will get a double opportunity to see one of the world’s most famous paintings at the National Gallery.
Two versions of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers are going on show for the next four months after the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam made a rare loan of theirs.
It joins the one the National Gallery persuaded the artist’s family to sell to it in 1924.
The display is the first time the two have been seen together in Britain since a show at the Tate 65 years ago.
The Amsterdam version was painted in 1889, the year after the National Gallery’s. The works are among five produced when Van Gogh left Paris to work in Arles in the south of France, a period marred by his nervous breakdown when he cut off part of his ear.
Art expert Martin Bailey said the Sunflowers show would be “a unique opportunity to see them afresh”.
Sunflowers is already the best-selling postcard for visitors to the gallery.
Staff at the gallery staged a protest there today over pay, claiming salaries started at less than £15,500 a year.
