Van Gogh’s Bedroom Paintings Recreated by Art Institute of Chicago & Airbnb

A Vincent Van Gogh painting of his bedroom in Arles (below) is recreated as an Airbnb room (above) in Chicago.

Anyone who has ever wondered what it might feel like to actually inhabit a Vincent Van Gogh painting can finally find out, thanks to a fairly stunning publicity stunt by the Art Institute of Chicago. Together with Airbnb and ad agency Leo Burnett, the museum has pulled off a coup that has art lovers and Van Gogh obsessives, in particular, feeling somewhat breathless: a life-sized, three-dimensional recreation of a bedroom featured in a suite of paintings by Van Gogh, designed to coincide with the exhibit, Van Gogh’s Bedrooms, which opened this past weekend in Chicago.

One of three paintings made by Vincent Van Gogh, depicting his bedroom in Arles.

The Art Institute of Chicago’s new exhibit, Van Gogh’s Bedrooms, unites, for the first time in North America, the three paintings that Vincent Van Gogh made of his bedroom in a small house in the southern French city of Arles, where he lived during the last few years of his life. His rented room was simply furnished and distinct for, among other things, it’s asymmetrical shape. Van Gogh described the room vividly: “I have painted the walls pale violet. The ground with checked material. The wooden bed and the chairs, yellow like fresh butter; the sheet and the pillows, lemon light green. The bedspread, scarlet colored. The window, green. The washbasin, orangey; the tank, blue. The doors, lilac.”

Ad agency Leo Burnet helped bring Van Gogh’s Bedroom paintings to life as an Airbnb room for rent.

Available to rent for the preposterously paltry sum of $10 a night, Van Gogh’s Bedroom gives guests a surreal opportunity to reside briefly inside the vivid hues and layered brushwork that remain emblems of the Dutch master’s work. And, as if any more incentive were needed, 2 free tickets to the room’s namesake exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is included as a bonus. Airbnb’s description of the room is nothing, if not quaint: “This room will make you feel like you’re living in a painting. It’s decorated in a Post-Impressionist style, reminiscent of Southern France and times gone by. Its furniture, bright colors, and artwork will give you the experience of a lifetime.”

Details evident in Vincent Van Gogh’s Bedroom paintings have been painstakingly composed in Van Gogh’s Bedroom on Airbnb

In bringing to full-scale life Van Gogh’s Bedroom paintings, a room in a downtown Chicago building was meticulously furnished, composed, and given the expressionistic brushwork needed to replicate the artist’s 3 masterpieces, which he executed over an 11-month span, between 1888-1889. Says Pete Lefebvre, creative director at Leo Burnett, “We thought the best way to help people understand Van Gogh’s life was to invite them to spend a night in this room. What better way to give people a glimpse into his mind than to create a truly immersive, one-of-a-kind experience like this?” None that we can think of.

For just $10/night, Van Gogh’s Room can be rented on Airbnb.

Via Adweek