Description
A new selection of post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh's letters, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, puts a human face on one of the most haunting figures in modern Western culture.
Few artists' letters are as self-revelatory as Vincent van Gogh's, and this selection, spanning his artistic career, sheds light on every facet of the life and work of this complex and tortured man. Engaging candidly and movingly with his religious struggles, his ill-fated search for love, his attacks of mental illness and his relation with his brother Theo, the letters contradict the popular myth of van Gogh as an anti-social madman and a martyr to art, showing instead a man of great emotional and spiritual depths. Above all, they stand as an intense personal narrative of artistic development and a unique account of the process of creation.
The letters are linked by explanatory biographical passages, revealing van Gogh's inner journey as well as the outer facts of his life.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853–1890) was born in the Netherlands. In 1885 he painted his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters, a haunting scene of domestic poverty. A year later he began studying in Paris, where he met Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Seurat, who became very important influences on his work. In 1888 he left Paris for the Provençal landscape at Arles, the subject of many of his best works, including Sunflowers.
Endorsements
"If there was ever any doubt that van Gogh's letters belong beside those great classics of artistic self-revelation, Cellini's autobiography and Delacroix's journal, this excellent new edition dispels it." — The Times
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