When Swiss art patron Maja Hoffmann started putting together her ambitious cultural plans for Arles, and created the LUMA Foundation 20 years ago, her father insisted she not forget Van Gogh's legacy.

The Van Gogh Foundation opened to the public yesterday in a grand 15th century mansion, right in the center of Arles, Southern France. The city has long been on the radar of Van Gogh lovers.

In February 1888, it took Vincent van Gogh 18 hours to reach Arles from Paris by train. Once there, he found a room at the Hotel Carrel just inside the city’s medieval walls and began to paint.

The four-page correspondence was purchased Tuesday by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in Paris ... Bernard in late 1888 during their stay in Arles, France, according to the Guardian.

Van Gogh, then in Arles, initiated the exchange ... Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) Emile Bernard completed a similar composition, a self-portrait with a small sketch of Gauguin.

Joseph Roulin aged 60 or 61, c. 1902 (photo courtesy Vincent van Gogh Foundation) But the Provençal town of Arles ultimately took hold of the Dutch painter, and over the course of 15 months ...

Vincent van Gogh, the brilliant but troubled Dutch impressionist painter, severed his left ear after a "blazing row" with fellow artist Paul Gaugin in Arles ... the Art Story Foundation writes ...