Vincent Van Gogh: Letters from Provence (Hardcover)

by Martin Bailey (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Van Gogh spent the last two years of his life in Provence, where he painted his greatest pictures, and this book tells the artist's own story of his most creative period. It reproduces extensive extracts from his correspondence and is illustrated with his paintings, drawings and facsimile letters. Van Gogh's letters are a testimony to his struggle to survive and work. Here, the combination of letters and illustrations, concentrating on the period when he painted his greatest works, aims to provide an insight into his daily life in Arles and St-Remy, his spiritual torment and the process of artistic creation itself. The author is an "Observer" journalist specializing in the arts, and has published four previous books, including "Young Vincent: The Story of Van Gogh's Years in England". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Crescent (January 24, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517120321
• ISBN-13: 978-0517120323
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,747,874 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gasp!, April 26, 2002

By	L. Dann "adhdmom" (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Van Gogh's letters from this, his most creative period, are not possibly a one read collection. Nor, do they necessarily demand an appreciation for his work. Historians of psychiatry and students of creativity and manic depression should not allow this primary source information to be overlooked.
Van Gogh's incestuous relationship with his brother, Theo, was covered dramatically in the film 'Vincent and Theo.' These letters are less pathological but certainly prove the interdependency, which no doubt increased unbearably upon Vincent's death. (Theo was dead a year later and had been chained to the wall in an assylum.)
But this is equally a series of untoward rapture for the natural world and the ordinary people he encountered there. We are introduced, in story and paintings, to some of the most memorable subjects of Van Gogh's accumulated works, Gaughan, Dr. Gauchet, The Chief Orderly in his assylum, The Postal Worker. There are also self-portraits and their impossibly anguished stories.
This is a 5-star work. There is no comparable work for insight into the man and the paintings. It also explains that inescapable discomfort and exaltation felt by studying his work.
Short and concise, it covers more than a biography and includes all the Provence masterpieces.