Anyone who knows Vincent van Gogh only as a tragic myth has seen only the frame. This non-fiction book goes straight to the paintings and shows how radical colour, urgent brushwork and a searching mind helped push Impressionism into Post-Impressionism and shape modern art. Author and editor Bert Alexander Petzold offers a fact-rich, entertaining, clearly structured tour that replaces legend with usable knowledge: how to place works, read motifs, and see why the paint feels so immediate.
Born on 30 March 1853 in Groot Zundert, the pastor's son tried several paths - Goupil & Cie. in The Hague, London and Paris, teaching and lay preaching - before committing to art in 1880. From Brussels, Etten and The Hague he developed his early realism and painted 'The Potato Eaters'. In Paris (1886), living with his brother Theo, he met the avant-garde, absorbed Impressionism, and brightened his palette in works such as 'Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat' and 'Flowering Orchard', forging a style that intensified rather than imitated.
Arles in 1888 brought the southern light and iconic images - 'The Bedroom', 'Starry Night Over the Rhône', 'Café Terrace at Night' - as well as the dream of an artists' community. The collapse of his partnership with Paul Gauguin led to crisis and, in 1889, to Saint-Rémy, where unrest and discipline produced paintings of extraordinary force, including 'The Starry Night', 'Cypresses', 'Wheat Field with Cypresses' and the 'Sunflowers'. In May 1890 he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise near Dr Paul Gachet and Theo, made nearly eighty pictures in weeks-among them 'Portrait of Dr Gachet' and 'Wheatfield with Crows' - and died on 29 July 1890 after shooting himself.
Perfect for GCSE and A-level revision as well as university study, the book uses biography and masterpieces as a key to looking, so you can not only recognise Van Gogh but truly understand him.
