Van Gogh

In 1888, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that he believed in the urgent need for a new art of color, drawing, and the creative life, and he hoped their shared commitment would not go to waste. History bore him out. Over a short, intense career that ended with his suicide at thirty-seven, he changed how people saw the world. His sunlit Provence landscapes and gloomy portraits of laborers broke down the usual contrast between light and dark, and his visions were so vivid they seemed to dazzle viewers.

His more than six hundred letters to Theo are also remarkable writing. They record his mental collapses, strained family ties, and frustration with art dealers who mostly ignored his work until his final years. Running alongside this are his encounters with prostitutes and poverty, violent arguments with Paul Gauguin, and wild nights in Paris with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Julian Bell brings the painter vividly to life in a forceful style that is both scholarly and openly partisan. He says he wrote out of love for the painter and for the letter writer, and he presents Van Gogh as an artistic genius and something more: a marvel of the world.