Vincent Van Gogh and his art

Recently I've been listening to the audiobook "Dear Theo" edited by Irving and Jean Stone and have learned much more about Vincent Van Gogh than I imagined. The audiobook is a compilation of Vincent's letters to his brother, Theo Van Gogh, who was an art dealer in Paris, and who took care of Vincent financially most of his adult life. I found out that I didn't know how much I didn't know.

As you may be aware, Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch artist who was one of four signal artists working near the turn of the 19th into the 20th century: namely Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh. These artists came to be known as Post-Impressionists because their styles, while related to and derived from Impressionism, evolved into more expressionistic styles which emphasized distorted forms and unnatural colors--to name a few features.

Van Gogh was a tortured spirit but always determined to master the art of drawing and painting, while also bringing to them a feeling of compassion and empathy for average working-class and poor people, in particular. Van Gogh's style emerged from awkward black and white drawings and dark, muted scenes to those of weighty, 3-dimensional bodies moving in bright, animated interiors and landscapes. His evolution in style and technique were nothing short of amazing and occurred over a relatively brief time period during the last several years of his life.

If you're interested in looking into Van Gogh's art further, you might also look at some other books we have in our collection which contain many photos and images exemplifying his works.

The Art of Van Gogh by Nathaniel Harris

Van Gogh by Bruce Bernard

Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art by Debora Silverman

Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings by Ingo F. Walther, Rainer Metzger with English translation by Michael Hulse.