‘Doctor Who’ Fans Spot The TARDIS In Newly Unveiled Van Gogh Painting

Vincent Van Gogh is my favorite artists of all time, so I was pretty excited to see that one of the Dutch painter’s long-lost works was recently unveiled after spending decades in storage in a private collector’s attic after the owner was told it was a fake. (Usually, all we hear about is how Van Gogh paintings are stolen and then found and then stolen, etc.)

Titled “Sunset at Montmajour,” the recently authenticated painting was unveiled this week to the media by Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, who believe Van Gogh painted it in Arles in southern France in the Summer of 1888, around the same time as some of the 19th century Impressionist’s famous works, like “Sunflowers” and “The Bedroom.”

If you look at the blue building in the distance on the far left in this landscape painting, you’ll notice it looks pretty familiar, doesn’t it? As our pal Amy Ratcliffe over at Nerd Approved pointed out — as well as lots of fans on Twitter — this edifice looks a lot like the TARDIS from Doctor Who!

[Vincent van Gogh “Sunset at Montmajour” zoom in on Montmajour Abbey or Doctor Who TARDIS? Image via io9]

According to the museum, the building is actually part of the ruins of the Montmajour Abbey, but I think we can all agree that its blue coloring and structure do, indeed, look eerily like the Time Lord’s time-travel machine. Any fan of the long-running scifi series would automatically be suspicious, especially since Van Gogh has appeared in the Doctor Who universe — see the 10th Episode of Season 5 “Vincent and the Doctor” and “The Pandorica Opens”, as well as this Doctor Who Starry Night Exploding TARDIS Print inspired by the latter episode.

BBC America’s official Doctor Who Twitter account even got in on the action by reposting a related fan-created meme that accurately depicts the Whovian response to seeing the painting:

New #VanGogh painting revealed. Apparently that is *not* a TARDIS in the background http://t.co/VOh0eS8xQv — Doctor Who on BBCA (@DoctorWho_BBCA) September 11, 2013

“Sunset at Montmajour” will go on display at the Van Gogh Museum on September 24, 2013.

[Source: Van Gogh Museum | Nerd Approved]

Amazon.com Widgets

Follow me on Twitter.