Vienna - Vienna's Albertina museum Wednesday opened an exhibition of 140 works by Vincent van Gogh that seeks to highlight the Dutch artist's skill as a draughtsman.

Visitors will be able to see 51 paintings as well as 89 watercolours and drawings in what the museum says is the biggest special display of the Dutch painter's works since an exhibition in Amsterdam in 1990.

According to experts, it is hard to make a distinction between the paintings and drawings of the artist, who initially wanted to become a draughtsman and illustrator.

"He paints on canvas with the brush like he draws on paper with the reed pen," Albertina director Klaus Albrecht Schroeder said.

The show's highlights include the Self Portrait with Straw Hat from 1887, and the Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de- la-Mer, from 1888.

Most of the works are on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which hosts the largest permanent exhibition of the painter who lived from 1853 to 1890.

Other pieces came from collections such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York or the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, which loaned the Hospital at Saint-Remy, from 1889.

In this painting, Van Gogh's sensibilities as a draughtsman are evident. Graphic brush strokes create a menacing pattern of trees that block the view to the clinic where the artist was treated for mental ailments.

The exhibition, featuring art worth three billion euros (4.4 billion dollars), runs until December 8. The Albertina museum hopes the show will attract at least 450,000 visitors. (dpa)