Leaving van Gogh does quite good job in presenting both the artist and the man. More recent books have tried to even this out, mainly by relying on the voluminous letters he wrote, instead of focusing on the more dramatic aspects of his life. And of course, the endless speculation on just what caused him to behave that way. They played up the strangeness of him the conflicts with Gaugin, the candles on his hat, the ear cutting. Older books, such as the overwrought Lust for Life, portrayed Vincent as a wild, out of control bohemian, consuming paint and absinthe in equal measures. Having been obsessed with Vincent van Gogh since my early teens, I’ve read most of the books about him over the years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |