The Life and Works of Vincent Van Gogh

by Janice Anderson

Vincent van Gogh does not belong to any painting 'school', though he shared with the Impressionists a feeling for light and colour, and like them, preferred to work out of doors. The quick brushstrokes of the Impressionists suited his temperament, as did his heavy use of impasto. This helpful volume shows many of van Gogh's best loved works, including the famous self-portrait with a Bandaged Ear, painted after he had cut off part of his ear in a fit of madness, Sunflowers, which were to him a symbol of power and beneficence, and The Starry Night, a painting which clearly expresses intensity and mental turbulence.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

79 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[leynes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to decorate my room with some paintings of Van Gogh and Monet and since I'm a cheap hoe and can't afford fancy art prints, I bought a bunch of art books second-hand for 1-3 € each. Turns out 90% of them were too fascinating for me to cut them into pieces, so I decided to read them instead.

(The perks of being a bookworm... lmao. But don't worry, I still cut up one of them bc I didn't realized that I already owned it and another one of them had a bunch of postcards in it that I used as art prints. Will show my new decorations in my May wrap up.)

Thus far, this book is my least favorite of the bunch (content-wise), because the insights weren't all that great (it was basically just a short description for each of the 25 paintings featured in this book) and the printing quality of some of the paintings was really low. Ultimately, I think I'm going to unhaul this book. I already own a biography of Van Gogh's where all of his paintings are printed in a better quality.

Things I learned (or refreshed my memory of) through this book:
– "La Berceuse" (1888) actually depicts the wife of Mr Roulin, the postman whose family were all painted by van Gogh
– "Red Vineyard at Arles" (1888) was the only painting that Théo managed to sell during van Gogh's lifetime
– Dr Felix Rey used the painting that van Gogh did of him (and for him) in 1889 to mend a hole in his chicken house (THE AUDACITY ;))
– van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" (1889) in St-Rémy-de-Provence
– "The Exercise Yard" (1889) was made by van Gogh from a copy of a Gustave Doré print of Newgate prison in London (and it reminds me personally of "The Ballad of Reading Goal" by Oscar Wilde: "I walked, with other souls in pain, / Within another ring, / And was wondering if the man had done / A great or little thing,")

[BellaGBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book which has an overview of some of Van Gogh's paintings with a short explanation. The explanations were really nice, because they talked a bit about van Gogh's life at the time of the painting and what the painting meant to him.

So all in all a nice book for everyone who wants to know more about the man and the paintings.

[Betty Strohecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for learning about Van Gogh and his style of painting. Biographical sketches accompany the featured paintings, explaining what was happening in his life and how it affected his canvasses. Although not a member of any painting school, Van Gogh was influenced by many of the day's impressionists as he moved from creating dark, heavy pictures to using bright colors and broken brush strokes. I learned so much about this famous artist and his short, complicated life. It's sad to know that he and his brother struggled to remain just above poverty, when his art is worth so much today.

[Maram]

💫💫💫

[Aditi Bhatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book carries the reader through various works of Vincent Van Gogh according to the timeline of his life with every painting describing his state of mind at that time.
It is intriguing to read and most of all, the arrangement of the paintings with his living years let you delve into the great artist's life.

[andreicareads ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐️.

[Rana YILDIRIM · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book for those who wish to keep Van Gogh’s works by their bedside, in their home. It’s also a perfect introduction to get to know him better.

I was drawn to learn more about him because I felt a deep, touching emotionality in his works. When I saw this book on a bookstore shelf, I picked it up immediately. Now, I feel much closer to him and more familiar with his art.

While reading the book, I simultaneously read some of the letters he wrote to his brother Theo and watched the tenth episode of the fifth season of Doctor Who. Experiencing all three at the same time made it feel as if I had briefly stepped into Van Gogh’s world—just for a day, but deeply and vividly.

[Iva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, really liked this.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having recently visited the LUME van Gogh exhibit at Newfields art museum, my interest was piqued about Vincent van Gogh. What contributed to his unique personality? What was the deal with him cutting off his ear? Why did he shoot himself?

I ended up checking out 2 books, each with many illustrations and each under 100 pages in length. They were “Van Gogh” by Ingo Walther, and “The Life and Works of Vincent Van Gogh” by Janice Anderson. I would recommend both if you’d like to learn some basics on van Gogh’s life and works.

Vincent was born in 1853, one year to the day after his parents’ firstborn, a stillborn boy that had also been given the name Vincent. Vincent’s father was a pastor and for a time, Vincent considered following the same path.

After trying various different career choices, Vincent decided to try painting as a vocation. This happened in his late 20s, and he produced an amazing amount of paintings before his death at 37.

He lived for a while in southern France, in a building he calls “the yellow house.” His roommate there is fellow artist Gauguin, who seemed more stable than poor Vincent. Gauguin and van Gogh had disagreements over philosophies of art. Gauguin decided to move out, and this pushed Vincent over the edge. He followed Gauguin out of the house, threatening him with a knife. The next morning, Gauguin found that Vincent had cut off a part of his own ear with knife and was now in the hospital. One of van Gogh’s famous self-portraits shows him with his ear bandaged.

Vincent had many struggles in life. His paintings never sold (he gave one portrait to the man he used as a model, and the man used it to patch a hole in his chicken house). He relied on his younger brother and closest friend, Theo, to pay his basic bills. He was rejected romantically and never married. He was a complete failure in everything that his contemporaries regarded as important.

In 1889, realizing his instability, he went to live in an insane asylum near St Remy, France. Here he created some of his most famous paintings, “Starry Night” being one example. “That is the eternal question,” he wrote to Theo, “is life all that there is of life or do we only know one hemisphere before our death? Speaking for myself I have no idea what the answer is but the sight of the stars always starts me thinking.”

In July 1890, feeling hopeless after more life struggles, Vincent went into a field with a gun and shot himself in the chest. He dragged himself back to the asylum, where he died two days later.

“It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill — it’s a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I’m alright when I completely immerse myself in work, but I’ll always remain half crazy.”

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

my first art book! a really nice and easy introduction to reading about art, has made me want to go out and buy many more. a lovely selection of works, with a lot more variety in colour and style than i knew of van gogh previously. descriptions of vincent’s personal life and mental health struggles made me cry, as someone who has recently developed mental health issues. however, his relentless optimism and appreciation for nature, the world and ordinary people are very inspiring :) a lovely read, both educational and deeply touching.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good pics (the potato eaters, the prison gang), but overall I felt that more than half of the pictures were either uninteresting or low printing quality. The book is short enough to prevent a lower rating- means you can whizz through quickly. Also learned how awful Van Gogh's life was- an obvious point but still remarkably bad; and how short his period of key productivity was. Half the challenge is probably the printer, but Van Gogh fell in my estimations through this book.

[Léa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect book to discover the main artworks of Vincent Van Gogh and get to know a few details about his life. This book doesn’t enter in the details though but is worth reading for anyone who just discover this artist.

[Adz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise, well produced, with brief notes to explain just some of the artists many paintings, as well as a little insight into the man and his differing styles of painting during his troubled life.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and interesting

[Kiera Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quality of the images could be better. The captions left alot to be desired

[حمود · Rating 5 out of 5]

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

[Jonathan Jerden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some 50 of his paintings . . . all completed within his last five years.

[Rowena Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this when I was a little girl :)

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great introductory book on Van Gogh.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short but interesting book about Van Gogh. The extended introductions to the pieces included were interesting and helped give an idea of the flow of his life, style and some of his major influences. It seemed like a nice variety of pieces and they were laid out chronologically. I learned a lot of tidbits that I didn’t know but it was pretty brief overall and left me wanting more.

UPDATE (second reading):
After reading this again (before donating it), I appreciated the selected paintings more. I've read a few books about Van Gogh recently in order to decide which to keep and which to donate, and one thing that stood out to me in this book was the collection of lesser celebrated works. There were several that I don't remember seeing before and I loved that. Van Gogh painted so much in the years before his death that I'm sure it's quite the task to chose what to include in this short of a book, but I really appreciated that they weren't all the more famous ones (although some very well known paintings do make an appearance).

Each painting has about a paragraph of text to go with it which I enjoyed as a little bit of a backstory of what was going on in Van Gogh's life at the time. I think that gives a much fuller understanding of and appreciation for each piece. There's also a very brief introduction to the book as a whole that gives a fast timeline of Van Gogh's life.

A handful of the images are pretty bad quality which was disappointing, but overall, this is a nice supplement to other books about the artist (though probably unsatisfying as a stand-alone).

[Lena Khachatryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful book)

[TS]

Reading again to prep for the Loving Vincent film.