Doctor Who's Art References: From Van Gogh to Weeping Angels

The article explores how Doctor Who integrates art history into its storytelling, focusing on episodes like 'Vincent and the Doctor' (S5E10), where the Doctor and Amy Pond visit the Musée d'Orsay and travel back to 1890 to meet Vincent van Gogh. The episode features van Gogh's paintings The Church at Auvers (1890), Bedroom (3rd version, 1889), and Café Table with Absinthe (1887), with the latter held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. In 'The Girl in the Fireplace,' artist Amanda Clegg created a portrait of Madame de Pompadour based on François Boucher's 1756 painting, now at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The Weeping Angels, introduced in 'Blink' (S3E10), resemble William Wetmore Story's 1894 sculpture The Angel of Grief at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. The episode 'Midnight' (S4E10) parallels Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare (1781) at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The 50th-anniversary special 'The Day of the Doctor' features the painting Gallifrey Falls at the National Portrait Gallery in London, echoing Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire, Destruction (1836) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.