The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (Penguin Classics)

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In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints. And that a woman and a man can become one, that is, one whole and not two halves, I believe that too. But it is absolutely essential to be able to draw the proportions correctly and to position the objects fairly confidently before you start.

Nevertheless, it is to these letters between the brothers that is owed much of what is known today about Vincent van Gogh. This, you might say, is the paradox of persistence: We admire those who persist in the face of struggle when they have genuine talent; but when they do not, the spectacle becomes almost pathetic. He had a bad relationship with his parents and often quarrelled with his brother, Theo, who was his closest confidant. In my twenties, I read about the different periods of art and famous artists and later, started visiting art galleries.By going along with this today and conforming to that tomorrow, as the world wants, and by not speaking out against the world and by only following public opinion! The only two periods when the public is relatively uninformed are the Parisian period, during which they shared an apartment and had no need to correspond, and a one-year gap in the correspondence from 1879 to 1880, when they had temporarily fallen out over Vincent's career choice. about various works, I have taken notes on works so when I go to look at them I can also reflect on van gogh's feelings about the work. I first began my reading of these letters as a way to learn more about the art process, the way to creation coming from the mind of such a gifted artist such as Vincent Van Gogh.

Through these letters, Van Gogh expresses in detail his perspective of contemporary and past renowned painters and their works. I came to understand his selections based on these letters explaining in great detail why he chose specific colors to use in his paintings. I have also written three blog posts on Vincent as well, one from when I visited the museum in Amsterdam, one of a special exhibition there on his madness, and one of an exhibition of his works that came to Melbourne. Với van Gogh, nhân vật trong tranh chẳng cần là ngài bá tước, cô công chúa, hay những điển tích Thánh kinh nào hết, mà chỉ đơn giản là nông phu đào khoai, chở than, là người đưa thư, là cây hạnh trổ bông trắng ngần, là cây bách dưới bầu trời sao.

Margaret Drabble describes the letters from Drenthe as "heart-breaking", as he struggled to come to terms with the "darkness of his hereditary subject matter", the bleak poverty and meanness of Dutch peasant life.

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. Not long after that he takes in a woman named Sien, a former prostitute, and his letters are filled with his dreams of family life.The widespread and popular realisation of his significance in the history of modern art did not begin until his adoption by the Fauves and German Expressionists in the mid-1910s. But for Van Gogh this was a plodding daily reality of struggle and failure, with no audience and no guarantee of ultimate success. The Chair takes the daily object from his bedroom; van Gogh also painted Gauguin’s Chair as the title suggests. His letters are very revealing and much more enlightening than the usual 'life of the artist' offering. The letters in this superb selection help account for this massive and lasting outpouring of affection.