The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (Penguin Classics)

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Here we can observe Van Gogh's thoughts and opinions at first hand, as well as his close ties with his brother Theo, his sometimes troubled relationships with friends and fellow artists, his personal doubts and fears, and above all his overriding passion for his art. He was a highly intelligent, sensitive man who read deeply and poured all his emotions into the letters. Additionally he read novels written by George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, and Charles Dickens, as well as John Keats's poetry, reading mostly at night when the light was too poor for painting.

Without having read every single letter, it's hard for me to know whether the choice of letters reflects and editorial slant (and I have a sneaking suspicion that many letters were chosen for biographical upheaval rather than artistic insight, but have no real grounds for that claim). His love and respect for people, including shunned disgraced women and the poor working class, sounded so contemporary to me. Next, I don't think it will astonish you greatly if I tell you that our discussions are tending to deal with the terrific subject of an association of certain painters. Collection of letters written and received by Vincent van Gogh In April 1885, Vincent wrote his brother about his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters. And there are many, many interesting anecdotes to be learned - like the fact that the work that he is known for, his famously intense paintings and hatched drawings, were down in less than three years - from 1887 to 1890 (a period during which he produced over 1000 combined paintings and drawings).He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art.

Vincent was a deeply spiritual person who never, during his lifetime, received the recognition that he so richly deserved. I may not have had much more access to his artistic thoughts, but I'm able to process his work in a much wider context than I was before.The biggest disappointment was that they failed to provide as much insight into Van Gogh's working process and aesthetic ideas than I hoped. And when I read, and really I do not read so much, only a few authors, - a few men that I discovered by accident - I do this because they look at things in a broader, milder and more affectionate way than I do, and because they know life better, so that I can learn from them.

For whatever reason, one particular passage Van Gogh wrote about death and the stars in the sky made a lasting impression on me. I'm not sure why it was such a shock, but I didn't expect the language to be descriptive, imaginative, piercing. His words shook me to the core and broke my heart some times, inspired and uplifted me at other times.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. Stopniowo, prośby i problemy finansowe przewijające się przez całą, ponad 10-letnią korespondencję między braćmi, zaczynają ustępować miejsca spowiedzi bezpośredniej, nagiej, reanimującej dozgonne (dosłownie) zaufanie, jakie van Gogh pokładał w malarstwie. Vincent van Gogh was born to upper middle class parents and spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers before travelling to The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught in England at Isleworth and Ramsgate. Yet it cannot be said that Van Gogh wagered everything on his talent, since there is not even a hint of calculation or self-interest in his continuing persistence. But in all of these letters, even before he decided to take up art—which he did comparatively late, at the age of 27—Van Gogh show a keen visual awareness and appreciation.