From Van Gogh to Gauguin, seeing original art can give us all a cultural workout

In an era characterised by burnout and doomscrolling, a therapeutic alternative is hanging on a gallery wall.

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When volunteers at London’s Courtauld Gallery stood before Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear, Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergère and Gauguin’s Te Rerioa, their stress and inflammation levels dropped compared with those of volunteers viewing reproductions. Science suggests that original art is a medicine that one can view rather than swallow.

That art can lift spirits is well known. But that it calms the body is novel. A study by King’s College London asked participants to look at masterworks by 19th-century post-impressionists - Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet and Gauguin - while strapped to sensors. Half the group saw the originals in the gallery, half viewed copies in a lab. The results were clear: going to art galleries is good for you - relieving stress, cutting heart disease risk and boosting the immune system.