Sleep in a Van Gogh-Themed Airbnb

True to Vincent Van Gogh’s vision down to every last detail, this real, three-dimensional, rentable room in Chicago feels just like stepping right into ‘The Bedroom.’ The Art Institute of Chicago is offering the space for just $10 per night on AirBNB to celebrate its upcoming exhibition, ‘Van Gogh’s Bedrooms.’ The rock-bottom price comes straight from the humble artist himself, who listed the ad himself (according to the lore created by the museum.)

“I’m charging $10 for no other reason than that I need to buy paint,” reads the ad. “However, I will be happy to provide you with tickets to my exhibition at the art Institute of Chicago.” Decorated in Post-Impressionist style, it’s full of soothing blues and greens, with a bright red blanket on a bed that sleeps two. Every item in the room is decorated with painterly brush strokes to mimic the look of the original, as seen through Van Gogh’s eyes.

Viewing it head-on provides the exact view seen in the Dutch artist’s iconic 1888 painting The Bedroom, but the room in the ‘Yellow House’ of Arles, France was featured in two of Van Gogh’s other paintings as well. The perspective is slightly askew, just as it is in the painting, with the wall slanting inward at the ceiling and the legs of the table not quite matching in size.
The painting was created right after Van Gogh moved into the Yellow House, explains the Art Institute of Chicago:
“This moment marked the first time the artist had a home of his own, and he had immediately and enthusiastically set about decorating, painting a suite of canvases to fill the walls. Completely exhausted from the effort, he spent two-and-a-half days in bed and was then inspired to create a painting of his bedroom.”
“As he wrote to his brother Theo, ‘It amused me enormously doing this bare interior. With a simplicity à la Seurat. In flat tints, but coarsely brushed in full impasto, the walls pale lilac, the floor in a broken and faded red, the chairs and the bed chrome yellow, the pillows and the sheet very pale lemon green, the bedspread blood-red, the dressing-table orange, the washbasin blue, the window green. I had wished to express utter repose with all these very different tones.’ Although the picture symbolized relaxation and peace to the artist, to our eyes the canvas seems to teem with nervous energy, instability, and turmoil, and effect heightened by the sharply receding perspective.”

The exhibition will bring all three versions of The Bedroom together for the first time in North America, just a few blocks west of the museum. Watch the Art Institute’s Twitter to find out when new reservations can be made for the room.