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Listy do brata

Vincent van Gogh,

Joanna Guze (Translator)

4.11 · Rating details · 12,729 ratings · 337 reviews

Listy wielkiego malarza holenderskiego van Gogha do brata, jego najbliższego przyjaciela, opiekuna i powiernika, to dokument niezwykłej wartości. Twórca, nie doceniany za życia, który nie sprzedał ani jednego obrazu, żyjący w nędzy i naznaczony piętnem szaleństwa, zawsze samotny, zwierza się ze wszystkich swych uczuć i myśli - zarówno wzniosłych, związanych ze sztuką, ...more

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Paperback, 512 pages

Published 2002 by Czytelnik (first published 1914)

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Mar 24, 2011 William2 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 19-ce, translation, letters, art-history, art, holland

An extraordinary document! What other inner view of a great artist's creative processes and life do we have like this one? (The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini perhaps, but it is boastful precisely where Dear Theo is introspective, materialistic where Dear Theo is threadbare, highly social where Dear Theo is solitary.)

We bear with Vincent when he abandons an early attempt to enter the church, during which he becomes about as parable spewing and pious as any pastor one can imagine. Then as he ...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Yun Yi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

I finished reading Irvine Stone's Lust for Life within one day like finishing a page turner, but I spent long time to read Dear Theo - letters of Van Gogh - each time I turned the page, I heard myself saying: slow down, take time, and digest every word slowly, as if the sooner I finished reading, the quicker the joy of being with him would vanish.

Van Gogh struck the world with his paintings, he also touched my heart with his words. If we take language as a vehicle of thoughts, Van Gogh deserved ...more

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Jul 29, 2018 MihaElla rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It's July, still. Just for a couple of days more. According to the official calendar today it's 29th July, 2018. I had to look into the phone app as I don't keep any paper calendar in my room [and I don't trust my harddisk on weekends] and going to the kitchen would have cost me changing my present comfortable writing position.
I was reading a letter dated July 1880. So, again with the precious help of the calculator app inside the phone, I am able to capture the time gap between my present and ...more

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Nov 22, 2018 David Gustafson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is probably not something for the casual art fans who have gathered a summary of van Gogh's life from various library collections of his works. In fact, the first four hundred pages can be a rather "more of the same" struggle for Vincent's loyal devotees even though he is an excellent writer.

Then, the unfortunate illness begins to take control and Vincent actually becomes a more likable human being. It is also worth noting that during this last year, even as he was shuttling between ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Saana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It feels a bit strange that this book is finally over. It took me longer to read than most books and still I feel like the end came quite quickly. But then again, isn't that exactly the case with his life?

I read this book to learn more about van Gogh as a person and I must say that I was surprised. He wasn't what I expected him to be. If you have a somewhat mysterious or divine image of him, this book will probably crush it - in a good way. For me it meant putting an end to any sort of It feels a bit strange that this book is finally over. It took me longer to read than most books and still I feel like the end came quite quickly. But then again, isn't that exactly the case with his life?

I read this book to learn more about van Gogh as a person and I must say that I was surprised. He wasn't what I expected him to be. If you have a somewhat mysterious or divine image of him, this book will probably crush it - in a good way. For me it meant putting an end to any sort of romanticizing on his personality or life. After reading this book I don't anymore think that he was only a misunderstood poor soul neither do I see him as a mad genius. I think this book gives you a quite realistic image of him as a regular (yet extraordinary) human being. Through these letters you can see his flaws as well as his good features. And as a person he is very interesting.

For me one of the most interesting things in this book was van Gogh's relationship with Sien. There was something very unromantic yet moving about it. He also admired the peasants and their hard work and often saw himself as one of them. It is quite understandable since the amount of work he put into drawing and painting is incredible. Since I love drawing and painting, I found this very inspiring and motivating for myself too.
I feel a bit silly saying this, now that I've actually read the book, but I was surprised at how much he actually put work into his career. He sacrificed everything for it and that's why it's so heartbreaking that he didn't get the appreciation he deserved during his lifetime.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in van Gogh, his art, his thoughts and his life. Especially if you like art in general as well. If you have some knowledge of the artists and writers he talks about (Delacroix, Millet and Zola for example) you will probably get even more out of it than I did. Also, I believe that this book can be a great inspiration on many areas, not only on painting and drawing. ...more

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Aug 27, 2015 Dorcas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

This book is in serious need of a re-read. I read this when I was about thirteen, and aspiring to be an amazing artist. Vincent Van Gogh fascinated me. I never really loved his art (shhh) but the mad, passionate artist appealed to me. And can you get any madder, any more passionate than Vincent?

I also read this with much sympathy for Vincent's brother, Theo. What a long suffering, sweet person to stand by your side. Hero Theo.

I loved this book and Irving Stone's sister book, Lust For Life. Both ...more

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May 31, 2008 Heather rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Van Gogh was clearly not mad, rather he was articulate, well read, thoughtful (and perhaps a bit desperate). Heartbreaking at times since we all know how it ends

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Sep 24, 2015 Federica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was an emotional journey inside the mind and soul of one of the artists -if not the artist- that, in my opinion, better expressed the whole world through their pantings. Not to mention that he is my favorite painter of all time.

I had always felt a strong connection with him toward his works, and now, while reading, I felt it again and even more. His letters to his beloved brother, trough the ups and downs of their relationship and of Vincent's life, show a sensitive, insecure man, aware of ...more

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Feb 09, 2008 Melynda Yesenia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: not-fiction

"Wait, perhaps you will see some day that I too am an artist, though I do not know beforehand what I can do; I hope I shall be able to make some drawings in which there is something human."

after i learned to treat this like reading someone else's mail, exactly what it is, i ended up enjoying having such a personal view of vincent's day-to-day. some of the passages about inspiration and how it is to be caught in a fury of creation and "become hopelessly absent-minded and incapable of heaps of ...more

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Dec 02, 2017 Janete rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Van Gogh was a problematic genius, but he was a very original one.

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Dec 10, 2019 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 19tbr, non-fiction

In these excerpts of letters to his brother, Van Gogh’s words are powerful and insightful, making this one of the best books of letters I’ve read with thoughts on art, faith, and life as well as on Van Gogh’s own work and experience. One could quote a passage from almost every page. Reading Van Gogh's words about his mental illness toward the end of his life was especially painful. He struggled so long to find his way in life and came to Arles with such bright hopes for his own work and for In these excerpts of letters to his brother, Van Gogh’s words are powerful and insightful, making this one of the best books of letters I’ve read with thoughts on art, faith, and life as well as on Van Gogh’s own work and experience. One could quote a passage from almost every page. Reading Van Gogh's words about his mental illness toward the end of his life was especially painful. He struggled so long to find his way in life and came to Arles with such bright hopes for his own work and for others, only to become chronically ill.

This is the kind of unscholarly collection of letters that would usually drive me crazy: most of the letters are not specifically dated; the text of numerous letters is run together; omissions are not indicated; and, there is no key identifying many of the people referred to. However, when this book was originally published in 1937, there was no reasonably priced edition of Van Gogh’s letters available, and the author’s intention was to fit in as many of Vincent Van Gogh’s words as possible, so adding lines for dates, spaces between each letter, etc. would have reduced the space available for the letters themselves.

I recommend reading this book with some supplemental information to fill in the blanks; the short, well illustrated biography “Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye” by Pascal Bonafoux worked well to provide background.

“What you wrote to me about the painter Serret greatly interests me. Such a man, who finally produced something with pathos, as the blossom of a hard and difficult life, is a wonder, like the black hawthorn, or, better still, the crooked old apple trunk that at a certain moment bears blossoms which are among the most delicate and most virginal things under the sun.

‘When a rough man bears blossoms like a flowering plant’— yes, that is beautiful to see, but before that time he has had to stand a great deal of winter cold, more than those who afterwards sympathize with him can know. The artist’s life, and what an artist is, that is very curious. How deep it is —how infinitely deep.” 1883

“Have patience with me, brother, and do not suspect me of ill-will. You will point out to me that I myself know full well that in many respects I am very difficult to deal with. Yes, that is true, and I too have to reckon with this. There is, however, an excuse for me; that is the passion and the frequent absorbedness which everyone who paints, writes, or composes must needs have.” 1883 ...more

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May 24, 2008 Valerie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really not what I expected, but kind of fascinating nonetheless. I expected to be riveted by the emotionally charged ravings of a brilliant lunatic - mad love affairs provoking jealous rages and self-mutilation. Instead van Gogh for the most part appears to be an entirely different man than the stereotype of the "crazy starving artist."

The only thing that seems crazy about him is that he literally appears to have spent his every waking moment painting. He does not have any close emotional bonds Really not what I expected, but kind of fascinating nonetheless. I expected to be riveted by the emotionally charged ravings of a brilliant lunatic - mad love affairs provoking jealous rages and self-mutilation. Instead van Gogh for the most part appears to be an entirely different man than the stereotype of the "crazy starving artist."

The only thing that seems crazy about him is that he literally appears to have spent his every waking moment painting. He does not have any close emotional bonds with anyone (aside from his brother). While he tries to maintain a couple friendships with some other artists, they are usually short-lived. He did have this woman in his life for a time, but she by no means seemed to have been a great love for him, at the very least, there was no mention of lust. Of course, these are letters to his brother, but still, they are basically a diary. What ends up being closest to van Gogh's heart is, so endearingly, the colors of the trees and flowers, fields, the peasants' faces, buildings, bridges, paint, beauty. He talks about this stuff non-stop. This makes for rather a dull read, but a very interesting portrait of someone when its all said and done.

He was literally starving also. Living on 20 cups of coffee and a few crusts of bread for a week routinely. How he managed to paint in such a state I have no idea!

I spent much of my time reading this book waiting for the infamous ear sequence, but when it finally arrived, I wasn't surprised at all at how anti-climatic it was. Van Gogh has spells and illnesses its hard to tell what's causing them... for the most part, he seems to be an incredibly upbeat, optimistic, lovely, goodnatured, and goodhearted man. Although he certainly had social issues as he couldn't make/keep friends, his one confidant, his brother, he's always asking his brother for money in a sort of weird wa, ...hmmm, the quote about not living, just painting, fear of living as suffering... loneliness, work but no fame, why the spells?

This article about the ear suggests it was in fact Gaugin who cut off van Gogh's ear during a fencing fight, but the two covered up the truth so Gaugin wouldn't suffer the consequences. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesig.... Van Gogh's mental illness seems directly related to physical weakness or conditions - fever, not eating enough, the paints! I have no doubt that his illness caused depression and or manic episodes, but I'd be hesitant to call him "bipolar" per se, as his illness really only seems to crop up in the end of his life and again is intrinsically linked to physical illnesses.

In the end, it is in fact van Gogh's eternal optimism and love of colors that breaks my heart. Even when he is confined in an asylum, he writes to his brother: "I have a little room with greenish-grey paper, with two curtains of sea-green with a design of very pale roses, brightened by slight touches of blood-red. These curtains, probably relics of some rich and ruined defunct, are very pretty in design. From the same source probably comes a very worn armchair, recovered with an upholstery, splashed like a Dias or a Monticelli, with brown, red, white, black, forget-me-not blue, and bottle-green. Through the iron-barred window I see a square of corn in an enclosure, a perspective like van Goyen, above which I see in the morning the sun rising in his glory."

I'm fairly certain that a depressive would never describe the upholstery of his surroundings in such a way. While van Gogh was indeed a queer queer man, it was not in the way I expected, or the way I feel popular culture has defined him.

On the one hand, I pity him: how hard he worked, how beautiful his paintings were, and how little recognition he ever received while alive, how poor he was, how destitute, and how he ended up. And yet, perhaps the man who has spent the prime of his life spending nearly every waking minute doing what he absolutely loved, and even until the very end still doing that despite everything, is a man to be envied. ...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Tamara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Tamara by: Diana

Shelves: all-time-favorites

This is one of my Top Five All Time Favorites, in a permanent position. Vincent's letters reveal his tormented yet beautiful soul. If you love, admire, or just appreciate his art, you will learn to love, admire, and appreciate him as a writer, a Christian, and brother. This is one of the "old friends" I like to re-visit.

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Jun 17, 2018 Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, autobiography

L'amour de l'art fait perdre l'amour vral (The love of art means the loss of real love). That quote fully summarizes the life of the genius Vincent Van Gough. His history as we know it is considered that of a great man. Unfortunately, like the many great men who lived and roamed the earth, his is just as tragic. By the time his works were publicly recognized he was dead for a long time. His life was characterized by continuous pressures and difficulties. For example,

Of Marriage he said "I feel ...more

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Nov 21, 2016 Svitani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

"Dear Theo" is a recopilation of cards that the artist, Vincent Van Gogh, written during his life in Arles, France, and all that he did was painting and reading books. The book collect a cards of his day to day life inside and outside the sanatorium where he was hospitalized, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence; first from a petition of his neighbors and later for his continued relapses and suicide attempts.

Vincent was a Dutch painter financed by his brother, Theo, who lived in Paris and paid all his ...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Cherie rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a hard book to rate or write about. It is a book of letters all, written by Vincent Van Gogh to his brother, Theo. That is all. It is not a difficult read. It is exhusting. Van Gogh was a driven man. He was not easy and he was so single minded. It is hard to read his letters, but there are some wonderful passages, when he talks about colors and what he sees and how he feels.

He loved his brother Theo, and depended entirely on him for his income to live and paint. It was never a happy ...more

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Feb 17, 2017 Anima rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

How not to love this collection of letters that allow us navigate slowly and delicately through the layers of impressive and ravishing beauty imprinted by Gogh on canvases and see the intimate structure of the wellspring of his artistic abilities?

"Try to take as many walks as you can and keep your love of nature, for that is the
true way to learn to understand art more and more. Painters understand nature
and love her and teach us to see her. Then there are painters who can only make
good ...more

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Feb 25, 2017 Caitlin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: letters, art-art-history

I've spent several months with the letters of Vincent van Gogh. They have given me access to a mind that was passionate, sensitive, erudite, and, above all, brilliant. Van Gogh died two days after writing the final letter to his brother. "Dear Theo" is a moving collection of letters that reveals the depth of love, tenderness, and respect between two brothers. This edition isn't perfect. I'd like to have seen each letter dated. More context and biographical information would have been helpful. ...more

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Nov 30, 2018 Carl Waluconis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: non-fiction

Not only one of the most influential artists ever, but also in his letters to Theo, he is a philosopher and critic. I can't think of another relationship in the arts that is as important as the brothers Theo and Vincent. Theo kept him painting and preserved Vincent's visual as well as is literary work, there extraordinary letters. Their loving relationship was a source of inspirational Vincent writes: "Do you know what frees one from captivity? It is every deep serious affection. Being friends, Not only one of the most influential artists ever, but also in his letters to Theo, he is a philosopher and critic. I can't think of another relationship in the arts that is as important as the brothers Theo and Vincent. Theo kept him painting and preserved Vincent's visual as well as is literary work, there extraordinary letters. Their loving relationship was a source of inspirational Vincent writes: "Do you know what frees one from captivity? It is every deep serious affection. Being friends, being brothers, love, these open the prison by supreme power, by some magic force. Where sympathy is renewed, life is restored." His deep studies of painting provide insights into other painters such as Gauguin, Delacroix, and Rembrandt, but also provide insights into the use particular colors. "The colorist is he who, seeing a color in nature, knows at once how to analyze it, and to say, for instance, that green-grey is yellow with black and hardly any blue. In other words, he knows how to find the greys of nature on his palette." There are many examine examples: "There are in colours hidden effects of harmony or contrast that involuntarily combine to work together, and which would not be possible if used in another way." There is nothing he does not carry back to painting. "Painting gives me light on different questions of tone and form and materials, before which I have up to now stood helpless. There is in painting something infinite." And: "While painting I have felt of late a certain power of colour awakening in me, stronger and different from what I have felt before. It may be that my present nervousness has to do with a kind of revolution in my method of working for which I have been feeling, and of which I have been thinking for a long time." He predicts that when an art is approached with such intensity, one will not live beyond the age of 40. He also explains why he chose this path - "The world concerns me in so far as I feel a certain debt and dust towards it, because I have walked on that earth for thirty years, and out of gratitude want to leave some souvenir in the shape of drawings or pictures, not made to please a certain tendency in art, but to express a sincere human feeling." A the same time he writes about the consequences of his pursuit. "Add to this the peculiar torture of loneliness. I say loneliness, and not solitude; I mean the loneliness a painter has to bear who in some unfrequented region is regarded by everyone as a lunatic, a murderer, a tramp -- a feeling of being outcast, particularly strange and unpleasant, though the country be ever so stimulating and beautiful." He places nature and the arts as something transcendent. "For Heaven’s sake, what is the mean of that social position and that religion which the respectable people keep up? Oh, they are perfectly absurd things, which make of society a kind of lunatic asylum." But to put art in the human world, he adds, "There is nothing more truly artistic than to love someone." His letters were not only about art, but even unique analyses of death: "While we are alive we cannot get to a star, any more than when we are dead we can take the train. So it seems to me possible cholera, gravel, phthisis, and cancer are the celestial means of locomotion just as steam buses, omnibuses, and railways are the terrestrial means. To die quietly of old age would be to go there on foot." He moves froths on to a sort of cosmic look at the world around him: "We must not judge God on the basis of this world; it’s a study that didn’t come off. What can you do, in a study that has gone wrong, if you are fond of the artist? You do not find much to criticize; you hold your tongue. But you have a right to ask for something better. It is only a master who cn make such a muddle....And this life of ours, so much criticized, and for good and even exalted reasons -- we must not take it for anything but what it is, and go on hoping that in some other life we’ll see a better thing than this." He felt that he had to work at painting, like it was something he owed to it. "I hope the desire to succeed is gone, and I work because I must, so as not to suffer too much mentally." And, "I am not conscious of myself any more, and the pictures come to me as in dream." "As for the artists madness in all of us, I maintain that our antidotes and consolations may, with a little good will, be considered as ample compensations. But what it proves once more is that worldly ambition and fame pass away, but the human heart beats the same, as in perfect sympathy with the past of our buried forefathers as with the generation to come." "I am thinking frankly of accepting my role of madman." It is good to know that Vincent was an avid reader and placed writing in the same realm. "If now you can forgive a man for making a thorough study of pictures, admit also that the love of books is as sacred as the love of Rembrandt, and I think that even the two complete each other." As one reads along, we see first hand the wear and tear of life take its toll on Vincent. It leaves the immediate buses of his illness really not adequately explained, and there is much speculation by other learned analysts, though truly nothing completely final. Vincent only tells us, "Well, my own work, I am risking my life for it and my reason has half-foundered. That’s all right." If you choose to read this, you are entering one of the most intimate and insightful conversations between two brothers. There is a lot you will not forget. ...more

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Jul 13, 2018 Tiana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Do not read while drunk, you will cry.

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Jun 10, 2015 Laurel Hicks rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2015, 2015-7

I had to read these letters slowly, because each brought a flood of color, art, and human emotions to my mind. Vincent was very well read, and he wrote almost as beautifully as he painted

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May 23, 2018 Lino's Version rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Dear Theo
The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh
Edited by Irving Stone
This is a good book to read…but it would be better if you have Vincent van Gogh (VG)’s art handy. So if you can read it when near a Google friendly device.

1995
Vii: there was one man on earth who understood Vincent, who encouraged him in his work, provided him with the supplies and the money necessary to continue his painting, who had an inexhaustible fund of love which, above all things, Vincent so desperately needed: his ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Riia Ryymin added it · review of another edition

I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this. What an extraordinary service has this editor done to us and the world. I find myself quite speechless due to many things now.

This book has been a seemingly endless project of mine for two years and now it is time it came to an end. This two years' time with the reading has nothing to do with the book being bad: very much the opposite. I've just read it in episodes, read other things simultaneously and even forgotten about it for months and ...more

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Jun 06, 2017 Dawn rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I got bored about 100 pages into this one. It was fun at first but became a chore. That's when I know it's time to move on.

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Jul 13, 2010 Kindell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Simply beautiful. The way he describes what he sees gives you a glimpse into how he composes his paintings. He views landscapes in patches of color and harmonies. It makes me want to view the world this way. Here is a random example of what I mean: "I am making a study of a red sun between the little birches on a marshy meadow, from which the white evening damp rises; beyond the meadow one can just discern at the horizon a bluish-grey line of trees with a few roofs."

This book is also very sad. ...more

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May 05, 2012 Elena rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017

Oye. This was tough to read. Mostly because his depression was terribly sad. There are some big gaps in time between letters, so it kind of astounded me when (SPOILER) one page he's talking about how much he just wants to serve God, and about four pages later he's so lonely that he unashamedly seeks out a prostitute. So sad.

But he was a genius. Perhaps he unwittingly served God after all by seeing all the beauty that's infused in the created world. But he was so desperate to feel like he ...more

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May 21, 2018 Roxana rated it liked it · review of another edition

I wanted to read this book since the time I knew it exist, just recently I was able to buy it and finally read it. The letters Vincent Van Gogh to the only member of his family who didn't turn his back on him, his brother Théo. It is an interesting book, a way to learn more about a genius's mind and how it worked, how he saw colors and the world arround him. He actually saw the world like a motivation for a painting, decomposing it in colores and sensations.
Maybe the objection I have this book, ...more

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Sep 12, 2015 ZaRi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: art, biography, letter

The Hague, 29 September 1872.

My dear Theo,
Thanks for your letter, I was glad to hear that you got back safely. I missed you the first few days, and it was strange for me not to find you when I came home in the afternoon.
We spent some pleasant days together, and actually did go for some walks and see a thing or two whenever we had the chance.
What terrible weather, you must feel anxious on your walks to Oisterwijk. Yesterday there were trotting races on the occasion of the exhibition,2 but the ...more

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Mar 16, 2017 Ty rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Reviewing a book such as this presents with certain difficulties. To begin with, it is mostly a translation, so one must be certain it is a faithful one. I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Then, one must consider the format and the editing. This is, after all a collection of letters, never intended to be a book. No given letter can fairly be judged on the basis of "bookish" readability. That is simply not why they were composed. To that end, the content itself is virtually immune to negative ...more

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Jun 05, 2016 Natalie Vien rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I think that when you finish this book only right thought is "What a brilliant talanted and the cleverest person". With each page I thought - what the effect on people could have this letters. Letters, full of right ideas, powerful words and deep sorrow. Practically always we can hear that letters is something private and we mustn't read it, but Van Gogh created something absolutely amazing and inspiring, so I think that it won't be a criminal to fall in love with this masterpiece. If you love ...more

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About Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

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Vincent Willem van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a Vincent Willem van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.

In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.

In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature. ...more

Books by Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh's Letters: The Mind of the Artist in Paintings, Drawings, and Words, 1875-1890

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Quotes from Listy do brata

“There was a sentence in your letter that struck me, “I wish I were far away from everything, I am the cause of all, and bring only sorrow to everybody, I alone have brought all this misery on myself and others.” These words struck me because that same feeling, just the same, not more nor less, is also on my conscience.” — 76 likes

“How rich art is, if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never empty of thoughts or truly lonely, never alone.” — 50 likes

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