Customer Reviews

Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)

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This remarkable book and the show it accompanies (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) demonstrate how fundamental drawing was to Van Gogh's art. As a self-taught artist Van Gogh knew that skill in drawing would be the heart of his work -- and the show bares this heart to world for effectively the first time. As well known as his paintings are, most of these works of art have not been seen by the general public.

The drawings share with his paintings a level of completion and self consciousness as works of art. With a few notable exceptions (a beautiful self-portrait) these are not notebook sketches. They are meant to be seen. They are finished. Even the quick drawings tossed off as ravishing little illustrations to his letters have a level of balance, completion, and seeming intent to convey a complete artistic thought to a viewer. And most of the drawings have a level of finish which suggests they were meant to be viewed as mature works of art.

But even then, the amazing thing about these drawings is that we can look closely and see the process of the drawings developing, almost as if they are about the pure pleasure of the act of drawing. There is an early drawing of "Behind the Hedges," (catalogue 20) where the fields and hedges and sky are all built up our of a rapid pen cross hatch, as if his hand never stopped whipping across the paper building up mood and atmosphere as he went.

There is the stunning "Two Cottages" (48) were the technique of the drawing changes with every moment -- hatched lines represents individual blades of grass, then moments later the same hatch represents a shadow on a wall of a building, then lightning fast dots for flowers, assertive contours for a treetrunk and then moments later trees represented as starbursts of abstract line. The lines waver between the literal and abstract, between defining a form and dissolving it, in a way that is simply a master class in drawing.

It's interesting too to see his "failures," when he took an academic class in Antwerp - academic training at this time emphasized drawing through outline and contour, then modeling with tone the interiors of the outlined forms. Nothing could be more alien to Van Gogh's sensibility, as his drawings show. They have none of the grace and polish one expects from academic drawings off plaster casts, instead they are exercises in rough, assertive volumes. They are stunning drawings. But for an artist who was self-taught and constantly measured himself to others of his day, this must have been a bitter frustration. But he chose his own tools and technique instead of letting the predominant styles constrain him.

The catalogue essays are interesting, and add useful background to the show. The reproductions are almost ideal - all of the catalogue drawings are reproduced in color even when they are ink or pencil, essential in such atmospheric work. Having seen the show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art number of times already, I would guess that it will be judged as one of the most important in recent memory, and certainly the finest collection of drawings I have ever seen assembled in six rooms.

This large, heavy catalogue (almost 400 pages) is probably the definitive volume on the drawings of Vincent Van Gogh. It was complied jointly by the Van Gogh Musuem, Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. While there are in excess of 100 drawings (in pen and ink, graphite, chalk, charcoal, and watercolor), the bulk of this catalogue is devoted to scholarship of the written kind. And what a fine and informative series of extended essays are here!

COLTA IVES and SUSAN ALYSON STEIN from the Metropolitan Museum contribute elegant essays but the more quirky information about this strange but magnificent artist can be found in the contributions from SJRAAR VAN HEUGTEN and MARIJE VELLEKOOP of the Van Gogh Museum. One would not think that an artist of Van Gogh's nature, one who painted more with the palette knife than the brush and poured more energy and thick paint into his canvases that seem as though they are completely spontaneous - no one would imagine that he was a man who valued drawings as precursors for his finished art. But here in fine detail (at times far more than you'd ever want to know!) the writers discuss this affinity for drawing, even demonstrating the drawing to painting results as excellent examples.

We must wait a bit to see the actual exhibition for which this catalogue was devised to see if the drawings stand up as well on museum walls as they do in this volume. This is definitely a book for those addicted to Van Gogh's output and history. It is a fine though lengthy read. Grady Harp, September 05

Without question Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings is one of the finest exhibition catalogues I've ever seen. Beautifully illustrated, this book is a first-rate accompaniment to the Van Gogh drawings exhibition held in 2005 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Having said that, for those who aren't able to attend the exhibition, this catalogue is the next best thing and definitely stands on its own.

The writers, the four curators (Ives and Stein from the Metropolitan Museum; Van Heugten and Vellekoop from the Van Gogh Museum) have compiled an outstanding catalogue that focuses on the 119 art works included in the exhibition. Each art work (mostly drawings, but some watercolours, letter sketches and paintings as well) is separately profiled with background information, analysis as well as exhibition history and provenance details. The breadth of the information is exhaustive. And at the same time extremely well written and insightful. The writers successfully walk the fine line of assembling a huge amount of very detailed information while at the same time presenting it in an engaging and entertaining manner.

In addition to the work by work profiles, the catalogue also includes historical and biographical sections which detail Vincent van Gogh's profession as an artist. These sections trace the course of Van Gogh's varied and remarkable career as a draftsman and, as a result, provide new and astute insights into each of the art works included. For those with a more specialized eye, there are also some interesting sections that analyze the technical aspects of the art works themselves (infrared reflectography, scientific analyses of the materials Van Gogh used, etc.). Technical yes, but written for both the specialist and the laymen. Yet another layer of insight into the astonishing opus of Van Gogh's drawings.

Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings is one of the largest and most comprehensive exhibitions of Van Gogh's drawings ever presented. And this catalogue is a superb companion to such an outstanding and successful exhibition. Highly recommended.

Lord Kenneth Clark, at the end of his book and television series, Civilization, said he had come to believe that there was such a thing as "genius". After looking through this book, so will you.

With over 350 drawings, mostly reproduced in color, and dozens more color reproductions of paintings, this will no doubt be the definitive work of the artist's drawings. We see many of his early drawings, including those enhanced with chalk, watercolor, etc. We see the drawings and watercolors done in preparation for his paintings and then we see the paintings themselves.

But the high points of the book are the three drawings in pen and ink done after each of the paintings and intended as reproductions of those works. He wanted a means to share these paintings with three different correspondents: John Russell, Emile Bernard and his brother Theo. He obviously couldn't afford the oil and canvas to reproduce each painting three more times. These laborious drawings were executed and mailed to individuals with whom Van Gogh wanted to share his work (and perhaps impress), or, in the case of his brother, to also show his love and appreciation. Slight variations among the three drawings after the same painting show further, "post-oil" development of each subject and give us additional insight into his style and his thinking. The color reproductions of his drawings allow us to see how the ink on each has faded over time and a 100-year old reproduction of a drawing shows us how the original has faded over time. Because virtually all of the drawings done as a mature artist were on 9-1/2 by 11-1/2 sheets, the reproductions in the book are almost actual size.

Fortunately, both Bernard and Theo's widow and heirs believed very strongly in his work, including his drawings, and ignored the advice of critics to throw it all away. They continued to promote the artist's work after his death, eventually leading to his broader recognition over the following decades. If you appreciate great drawing, this is a "must have" book.

Art forms are seldom replaced by those that follow them. This book comes at a time of renewed interest in drawing, in a time when so many artists are avidly engaged in technical methods of digital expression. To open the book is to be seduced by expertise and draughtsman ship. Drawings were an extremely large and important part of Van Gogh's production. It was of interest to find he considered them no less works of art than his paintings. How is it that this work has remained relatively unknown? There are 120 drawings reproduced. A statement of Van Gogh's personal connection to place as subject, previously published references, provenance, and exhibition history accompanies each. Writing by the contributing curators includes scholarly information: biography, Van Gogh's relationships to other artists, approaches to and development of his work, history of exhibitions, digital rejuvenation of aged drawings, the scientific analysis of his materials, scientific analysis of drawings under paintings. The information provided is easily readable and fascinating from many varied points of view. Additionally and especially it is a visual book, of very beautiful drawings, finely reproduced. Its time has come.
Nancy Gutrich

Very well written. Answers important questions artists like myself have about reed and quill pens, inks, etc. that Vincent used. If you enjoy working in pen and ink this book provides lots of exciting details. Such as Vincent's method of drawing in pencil and heightening in pen and ink and his common sense method of making the paintings proportional to his drawing paper dimensions.
Excellent illustrations with the size, media (complete list), and text.
This is an important book in my collection as an artist and as a Van Gogh fan.

This is the catalogue for a 2005 exhibit at the Met. A valuable addition to the literature on Van Gogh, it encompasses his whole career as a draughtsman, and a brilliant one of course. The images are perfect (you sometimes get the impression that you are holding the actual drawing) and the text very helpful, giving sizes, provenances and many excerpts of Van Gogh's own letters.I remember visiting the exhibition in crammed rooms on a saturday afternoon, therefore I was glad to be able to savour it once again in a quieter atmosphere, thanks to the book.

Full of drawings and descriptions of them, it is a great help regarding the importance of drawing and the use of different materials. It is the best collection of drawings from Van Gogh that I have ever been able to lay my hands on. Full of information collected from different museums
A must for those who enjoy a good drawing or are taking drawing seriously.

The MMA book reveals the importance of preliminary drawing to the paintings of Van Gogh, who observed intensely and closely but was yet unable to "render" what he saw so acutely. This frustration contributed fuel to the vigorous manner of the application of paint to canvas.

This is an excellent book. It is beautifully illustrated, making it a lovely overview of Van Gogh's drawings, visually-speaking.
It is also very well-written, researched and scholarly. The interweaving of biography, history and art makes it a great resource for research.
I am particularly interested in prints and drawings as art media and work in an Art Gallery, so I find the book to be a good addition to my personal art history library.
It compares well with Rubens: The Drawings, a recent catalogue for a Metropolitan Museum Exhibition.