Nienke Bakker

A collection of quotes from Vincent van Gogh on art, love, nature, colour, ambition, friendship, future, sorrow and consolation. ‘There are so many people [...] who imagine that words are nothing. On the contrary, don’t you think, it’s as interesting and as difficult to say a thing well as to paint a thing. There’s the art of lines and colours, but there’s the art of words that will last just the same’ Vincent van Gogh For more than a century, Vincent van Gogh’s letters have been a source of inspiration to many. This book of quotes unites the exceptional and touching words of Van Gogh. Read his compelling thoughts on love, friendship, the comfort offered by art and literature, passion for work, the importance of ambition, dealing with setbacks and the beauty of nature.

A landmark publication tracing the final months of Van Gogh’s life. Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Final Months offers a unique and impressive overview of the paintings and drawings that Vincent van Gogh created during the last seventy days of his life. He produced no fewer than seventy-four paintings and over thirty drawings in the course of the intense, productive period leading up to his self-inflicted death on 29 July 1890. While the Portrait of Dr Gachet, The Church at Auvers and Wheatfield with Crows are numbered among his greatest masterpieces, this part of his oeuvre is otherwise less known – unfairly so – than the sunny landscapes he painted in the south of France. The book follows the artist from his arrival in Auvers-Sur-Oise, where he set to work full of hope and with fresh ambitions, through to his final weeks. Essays by leading Van Gogh specialists highlight his artistic ambitions and mental state during this final phase; his exploration of the Auvers landscape; the flower still-lifes, portraits and panoramic landscapes he painted there; the role played by his drawings; and his artistic reputation at the time of his death and in the years immediately afterwards. In addition to all the Auvers paintings, the book is richly illustrated with drawings, sketches, historical photographs and detailed maps of the places Van Gogh worked. Also featured are related works by contemporaries and predecessors whom he admired.

This work traces the artists and photographers who--whether fascinated or repelled by prostitution in all its forms--captured the realities and fantasies of this ambiguous world. From the scandalous Olympia by Manet to Degas's The Absinthe Drinker, from Toulouse-Lautrec and Munch's forays into brothels to the bold figures and caricature portraits of Rouault, van Dongen, and Picasso, this book foregrounds how the shadowy domain of prostitution played a central role in the development of modern painting. In nine chapters, these paintings, sculptures, lithographs, sketches, photographs, and press clippings are given context within the moral framework of an era when prostitution was considered an unavoidable--or enticing--evil, powerfully evoking the ambivalent place held by prostitutes in the midst of nascent modernity, from the splendours of the demimondaines to the miseries of the working-girl pierreuses.

Vincent van Gogh’s letters have long been prized as some of the most valuable documents in the world of art. Not only do they throw light on Van Gogh’s own complex and intriguing character, they enlighten the whole creative process as seen through his eyes. Now Van Gogh’s entire existing correspondence is to be published in the most complete edition ever produced, illustrated extensively throughout, and drawing on fifteen years of scholarship and dedicated research. For the first time, all the works to which Van Gogh refers will be shown alongside the letters – not only the paintings and drawings that he himself was working on at the time, but also the works of art by others that he mentions. Sketches that Van Gogh made throughout the letters themselves are all reproduced here at full size. In over 900 letters 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. This edition is not only an immense treasure trove of biographical and art-historical information, it provides a lasting pleasure as a personal written testimony to a life consecrated to art.