Je sais trop bien quel but je poursuis, je suis trop fermement convaincu d'être après tout dans la bonne voie - quand je veux peindre ce que je sens et sentir ce que je peins.
The compelling story of how Vincent van Gogh developed his audacious, iconic style by immersing himself in the work of others, featuring hundreds of paintings by Van Gogh as well as the artists who inspired him--from the New York Times bestselling co-author of Van Gogh: The Life Vincent van Gogh's paintings look utterly unique--his vivid palette and boldly interpretive portraits are unmistakably his. Yet however revolutionary his style may have been, it was actually built on a strong foundation of paintings by other artists, both his contemporaries and those who came before him.
Now, drawing on Van Gogh's own thoughtful and often profound comments about the painters he venerated, Steven Naifeh gives a gripping account of the artist's deep engagement with their work. We see Van Gogh's gradual discovery of the subjects he would make famous, from wheat fields to sunflowers. We watch him experimenting with the loose brushwork and bright colors used by Édouard Manet, studying the Pointillist dots used by Georges Seurat, and emulating the powerful depictions of the peasant farmers painted by Jean-François Millet, all vividly illustrated in nearly three hundred full-color images of works by Van Gogh and a variety of other major artists, including Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, positioned side by side.
Thanks to the vast correspondence from Van Gogh to his beloved brother, Theo, Naifeh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is able to reconstruct Van Gogh's artistic world from within. Observed in eloquent prose that is as compelling as it is authoritative, Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved enables us to share the artist's journey as he created his own daring, influential, and widely beloved body of work.
Vincent van Gogh created some of the best loved - and most expensive - works of art ever made, from the early "The Potato Eaters" to his late masterpieces "Sunflowers" and "The Starry Night". This biography draws on all of his (and his family's) letters, which offer written glimpses into his thoughts and feelings.
Vincent van Gogh created some of the best loved - and most expensive - works of art ever made, from the early "The Potato Eaters" to his late masterpieces "Sunflower" and "The Starry Night". But when he died in Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890 the age of thirty-seven he was largely unknown. This title tells his story.
