It was for only nine weeks that Van Gogh and Gauguin shared the "maison jaune" in the center of Arles, France, but so much was accomplished in those short weeks. The field of art was changed irrevocably. Van Gogh and Gauguin wanted to change the style of art from the currently-fashionable impressionism. They wanted to express something from within themselves as they painted the world. They wanted their colors to be beautiful and to express inner feelings.
Gayford's volume is complete and detailed, and I am confident to say, the definitive work on this time period in the life of these two giants in the world of art. In it, he describes details of their daily life, as well as their exchange of ideas. Much of what he writes about here is based on the letters of these two prolific artists, primarily of Van Gogh's, whose life was fully documented in his daily, sometimes even more frequent, letters to his brother, Theo, an art dealer in Paris.
Despite the thoroughness with which Martin Gayford explores his topic, there are also some problems with this text. The biggest problem is that, although the author stresses the importance of color in Van Gogh's work, this book is printed with only black and white reproductions of the artists' work, leaving a very frustrated reader.
Another problem is that Mr. Gayford might describe and analyze a painting at length, and then not even have a reproduction of that important work in the book. In other cases, there are paintings reproduced here that are not mentioned in the text.
In spite of these important downfalls, Mr. Gayford does succeed in giving the reader a vivid depiction of the personalities of these two artists as well as excellent explanations of their artistic styles.
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Useless illustrations, no color, just faint black-and-white and barely visible
This is a very good book and I am enjoying the text. However in a book about two artists, both of whom relied on intense colors to express themselves, to have their paintings reproduced as fuzzy black-and-white images that are barely visible undermines the whole point of the book. Better to have no images at all. These are worse than useless
Top reviews from other countries
Robert Machin
Intensely moving...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2010
