Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)

This generous selection of letters not only gives insight into Van Gogh’s aims and values as an artist, but stands as the literary record of a magnificent human soul. I was fascinated to follow him as he struggled to find his vocation. His detours as an art dealer, a bookseller, a preacher, all the while recording in his letters vivid visual descriptions of landscape and people. When he finally realized art was his calling, he had the sensibility of an artist from the start, even as he show more struggled with perspective and other matters of technique.
The hints of mania that take the form of religious fanaticism when he preached among coal miners transmuted to a personal approach to art. In a letter to his brother Theo in July 1885, Vincent contrasts his paintings of workers with earlier artists’ depiction of “types.” He is more interested in depicting work than in portraying exotic figures. When he paints faces, his ambition was to create a new kind of portrait, one that showed the mind, the soul, of the subject, rather than carefully recreating the surface facial features. To achieve what he’s after, he places less value on strict anatomical accuracy, becoming a forerunner of modernism.
Since most of his surviving letters were addressed to Theo, there is little from his hand to report his stay in Theo’s apartment in Paris. There he met the Impressionists and studied their trailblazing work. His own canvases from his time there reflect his absorption of their brighter palette. Yet when he left Paris for Arles, in the south of France, he consciously rejected many aspects of their style. He explained his decision to Theo. The Impressionists used color combinations to more accurately convey their visual impression than a direct application of color would. Van Gogh became convinced he should use vivid colors to express his emotional reaction to what he saw.
His letters not only report on his progress as an artist and his thoughts on theory, technique, and other artists. I was struck by how Vincent documents his passion for reading. It’s no surprise that he read books by and about artists, but he also devoured much contemporary literature, especially in French and English (he was good at languages).
In light of his complicated relationships (not only with Gaughin), his breakdowns, and his violent end, there is the temptation to read all his passionate outbursts and his tendency to preach condescendingly as ravings of a madman. The editor, Ronald de Leeuw, argues against this in his introduction. Yet, there are features in some of the letters that would sustain such a view. Balanced against this, however, are passages that convey his love of life and humanity and art. It took me a while to finish the book as I often stopped to copy out passages such as this one: “Anything complete and perfect renders infinity tangible.” Vincent Van Gogh’s output was impressive, both in volume and in its striking originality. Yet it is clear reading these letters that he is striving to convey the lustrous wonder of life, something far beyond what he or any other artist can achieve. show less

Los pensamientos y las preocupaciones diarias de Van Gogh.
Lo que me ha sorprendido es que se preocupaba mucho sobre dinero, ya que era pobre, apenas podia pagarse comida y pasa dias enteros sin comer a veces, no me extraña.
Y le preocupaba el arte, pero no le preocupaba no triunfar, sino no hacerlo lo suficientemente pronto como para poder dejar de tener esas preocupaciones de dinero.

Yo creo que sabia que lo que hacia tenia valor pero le preocupaba no poder demostrarlo.

En todo caso, una gran show more ventana a los pensamientos de una persona muy influyente en arte. Interesantisimo. show less

Los pensamientos y las preocupaciones diarias de Van Gogh.
Lo que me ha sorprendido es que se preocupaba mucho sobre dinero, ya que era pobre, apenas podia pagarse comida y pasa dias enteros sin comer a veces, no me extraña.
Y le preocupaba el arte, pero no le preocupaba no triunfar, sino no hacerlo lo suficientemente pronto como para poder dejar de tener esas preocupaciones de dinero.

Yo creo que sabia que lo que hacia tenia valor pero le preocupaba no poder demostrarlo.

En todo caso, una gran show more ventana a los pensamientos de una persona muy influyente en arte. Interesantisimo. show less

It's Van Gogh, and many works that I hadn't seen before. I really liked several of the landscapes. I have read a number of art books buy this author and i do appreciate that they are free with Kindle Unlimited. This one was frustrating as instead of placing the title of the work in a caption, all of the titles are in the table of contents. It was obnoxious and is the main reason I gave this two stars and not three.