Van Gogh

"This man will either go insane or leave us all far behind," prophesied thegreat Impressionist Camille Pissarro. The man was Vincent van Gogh(1853-1890), a vicar's son born at Groot-Zundert near Breda in Holland,who at that time was struggling to find buyers for his paintings. Van Goghdid indeed go at least to the brink of insanity. And he has long beenrecognised as one of the greatest modern artists.Van Gogh, who followed avariety of professions before becoming an artist, was a solitary,despairing and self-destructive man his whole life long. His truest friendwas his brother Theo, who supported him unstintingly throughout andfollowed him to the grave just six months later.This richly illustratedstudy by two experts on van Gogh follows the artist from the earlygloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants andworkers in his home parts, through the bright and colourful paintings hedid in Paris, to the work of his final years under a southern sun inArles, where he at last found the light that produced the unmistakable vanGogh style.At Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise, in the feverish burstof creative energy that marked the last two and a half years of his life,he produced the 463 paintings on which his immortality rests.