October 19, 2010. Italy's capital is currently hosting an exhibit featuring seventy three works by Dutch painter and one of the world's most famous impressionists –  Vincent Van Gogh.

Museums like the Louvre in Paris, New York's MOMA or London's Tate Gallery have donated their prized Van Gogh paintings to illustrate who the artist really was.

Benedetta Calzavara
Exhibition coordinator (Rome)
"He was not crazy, and less when painting, because when he worked, he was extremely cold. He was extremely cultured and exceptional, especially from the artistic point of view. "

Oddly enough, this exhibition reveals one of the least known aspects of the artist: his religious. Van Gogh's father was a Protestant minister, and Vincent had a Christian upbringing. That's why, early in his career he painted some landscapes with churches.

Cornelia Homburg
Exhibition director
“When Van Gogh become an artist, the church become a symbol of eternal life, of stability, of human values and in this case, for example, we see the old church tower of Munich which was no longer in service at the time”.

The exhibition captures the artist's affinity for rural and urban landscapes. His early works sketch the lives of peasants in pencil and are always depicted in dark colors.

Cornelia Homburg
Exposition director
“Vang Gogh at that time wanted to paint with dark colors as he felt that the person who was working the land should be painted with the colors of the earth”.

Benedetta Calzavara
Exposition director (Rome)
“This exhibit examines for the first time Van Gogh's relationship with the countryside, like  timeless rural landscapes that never change just like the rhythm of stations that regulate jobs for farmers. While the city remains the modern world.”

But this view of the countryside and the city has changed since his arrival in Paris in 1886. There he met Impressionist contemporaries Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac and Jean-Francois Millet. His style changed and his paintings were filled with splashes of color.
In addition, he painted 27 portraits like this oil painting made in 1887 and portraits such as Madame Roulin with her daughter.

The exhibition, which has for the first time  reunited some of the artists most famous works, will run until January 30th.