Customer Reviews (30)

Disapointed
I was familiar with this set of books titled Vincent van Gogh, the Complete Paintings.It consists of 2 volumes and is seven hundred something pages that is housed in a cardboard case to protect the dust jackets.That is what I ordered and I received volume one only.The description on the website did not indicate that it was half of the set.The emails to the company were not helpful.I am very unhappy.Vincent Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings

Love this book
Loads of paintings I'd never seen before in this book.Good quality and handy size.

Must Have
Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings (Klotz)

What an amazing teaching tool!I have used this tome in my art classes for adults for several years now.Packed full of color photographs of his work, they are separated into the periods of his life.You see what he painted and what his mood and life was at the time.All 700 pages of text have a color photograph or two or three, yet, there is still an extensive biography! Totally a bargain for this price or any price!

Bought it... Browse it..... Love it¡¡¡¡¡....
This book was a great find, I've been a Van Gogh Fan all my life, but I was a little dissapointed with the book's published about him,but this one is a real exception: jam packed with info and well illustrated with all his paintings and the price is a real bargain¡¡

Good Collection
I enjoyed a Van Gogh Exhibit and wanted to get a collection of his works to look at and decided on this book.

It is pretty encompassing with a wide range of paintings, though some here indicate it may not be complete.

As to the images, they are of a quality that was similar enough to what I recall to seeing, so it serves its purpose well (though I wish all the painting coulds have been larger, but of course in light of the amount of material it is too be expected.)

So overall I found this a good buy for what I wanted. ... Read more

Product Description
A splendid new biography--"vivid, intimate, scrupulously accurate yet reads like a novel.As we read Callow we feel closer to that tormented genius."--Olivier Bernier, Newsday.A Book-of-the-Month Club Alternative Selection. ... Read more

Product Description
A widowed first cousin, Kee; a prostitute named Sien; shy, spinsterish Margot Bergemann; the seventeen-year-old peasant girl Stien de Groot—to all of them Vincent van Gogh would declare his love. In none of them would he find the wife to seal the emotional bond that he so perfectly imagined and ardently desired. He described it, too, in his correspondence, not only in the remarkable, justly famous letters exchanged with his brother Theo, but also in heartfelt missives to his aggrieved mother, his loyal sister Wil, and his devoted sister-in-law Johanna. Focusing especially on van Gogh’s letters to these three steadfast women he called his sisters, award-winning author Derek Fell examines Vincent’s interior life and poignantly documents his emotional decline. Indeed, the blows that Vincent’s psyche suffered—like his rejection by Kee and a dramatic showdown with her father in which the devastated Vincent held his hand in a lantern’s flame—continually undermined his self-worth. In a sensitive reading and astute interpretation of van Gogh’s own written words, Fell illuminates the passions that at once commanded Vincent’s genius and tormented his heart. Many illustrations are included in this revealing life of the artist, as seen through the lens of his loves and losses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

not very good
Indeed, this book is not well written. It reads like a college term paper, with attendant deficits in argument development, source citation, etc. There are huge amounts of speculation with little or no evidence to support them. It also loses its focus; although ostensibly about relationships with women, the book devolves into a loose biography of van Gogh's life.

Having said all of this, there are worthwhile portions of the book. I enjoyed knowing about his strong family history of psychiatric illness, and of his seemingly endless capacity to engage in doomed relationships. I wondered about van Gogh's diagnosis: bipolar, borderline personality disorder, neurosyphillis, lead toxicity, all of the above? There was enough here to stimulate some thought.

This book is worth a brief skim, at the library, but should be complemented by a more authoritative biography if you are more interested in fact than speculation. ... Read more

Product Description
This important, groundbreaking publication contains the illustrated letters between two great modern artists–Vincent van Gogh and Émile Bernard. The original letters were previously in private hands and have not been seen for approximately seventy years. Here they are published in association with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and an exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York. In addition to the letters, the book also includes paintings, photographs, and drawings by both artists, as well as works by artists of the period, such as Paul Gauguin and Jean-François Millet.These letters, written between 1887 and 1889, are among the most important and relevant sources of insight into van Gogh’s life and art. They bridge the time when van Gogh was living and working in Paris, where he painted most of his self-portraits (mainly because he was unable to afford models), to the small town of Arles, in Provence. Here he adopted new types of compositions and developed new ideas about color–all of which he describes in detail in letters to his friend and fellow painter Bernard. Only a year later, in July 1890, van Gogh died, at the age of thirty-seven. The authors have carefully placed each letter in context of relevant events and have written authoritative commentaries on the content of the letters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

He painted with words.
Word by word, page by page and letter after letter the myths are peeled back and the true character and personality of this great master becomes revealed.

Beautiful publication...
..in fact, in my entire library, one of the best. I read it before viewing the exhibition. The facsimiles of the letters are as good as seeing them in person. Art and letter lovers alike will cherish this book!

A new insight into Van Gogh's working method
The 22 letters written by Van Gogh to French painter Emile Bernard, in which he almost exclusively discusses the subject of painting with a fellow artist, are the subject of this beautiful volume which accompanies an exhibition of the letters at the Pierpont Morgan library in NYC. Each of the letters is reproduced through a high-quality facsimile and also translated into English. Many works Van Gogh alludes to in those letters are also reproduced and every letter is carefully annotated which helps the reader understand the many references the artist cites as sources of inspiration to his work.

This is a groundbreaking publication that gives the reader invaluable insights into Van Gogh thoughts and working methods and comes as a perfect complement to the already published correspondence of the artist with his brother and dealer Theo. The letters to Bernard are more spontaneous because they were written by an artist to another artist and the introduction of the book explains this very well.

Highly recommended.

A life examined in a new light
As a writer, I found this book very much of a revelation. Why? Simply put, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) was a prolific writer of letters. He wrote hundreds of brilliant letters to fellow artists, friends and his brother, Theo. Much of a persons character, thoughts, likes and dislikes, loves and hates, fears and loneliness can be found in letters. Both the darkness and the light of the soul come through in personal letters as they are often inner directed as much as directed to the receiver.

Many of these letters tell the story of life. They give us a glimpse of the ideas behind his art. They seem to prove that he was very much in his right mind and that he was not suffering from any sort of mental disability as some have thought.

The letters written to the French painter, Emile Bernard (1868-1941), who was twenty-years-old in 1888, are of great significance. In these, the artists share ideas when van Gogh was working in Arles in the South of France.

This is a very fine work. It's interesting reading and seems to bring the characters to life.

Highly recommended.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

A VOLUME TO BE READ, REREAD, AND TREASURED
A friend of many Impressionists, Vincent van Gogh stands alone among artists, beloved, admired and respected by millions.While many of his paintings are familiar to us, this beautiful volume offers insights into his thinking, his cretaive process, and his life.The letters presented herein were written between December 1887 and November 1889 to his younger friend and colleague, Emile Bernard.These epistles are priceless as they focus to a great extent on artistic questions and, at the same time reveal a man blessed with a unique style and plagued by doubts.

Letters in this volume are numbered from 1 to 22.Facsimiles of all are presented.With these we are privy to the artist's apparent disregard for apostrophes and his cavalier use of capital letters.A joy and privilege to see the writing in his own script, complete with drawings and crossed out words.

Following the facsimiles one finds the letters printed in the original French along with transcriptions.Also included are generous full color reproductions of paintings by van Gogh and Bernard, many of which are discussed in the epistles as van Gogh both criticized and praised the younger artist.What comes through very clearly in the correspondence is the depth of friendship the two men shared.

Van Gogh's last letter was written mere months before he took his own life.
Vincent van Gogh Painted with Words is a volume to be read, reread, studied, and treasured.It contributes immeasurably to our understanding of this troubled genius.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke
... Read more

Product Description
Parisian avant-garde artists of the late 1880s and early '90s made up the circle Vincent and Theo van Gogh called the "petit boulevard." Among this group of struggling artists, Vincent, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard, Georges Seurat and others fought, with brilliant results, to establish their careers and create a truly modern art.

Vincent van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit Boulevard is a fresh look at this post-impressionist generation, and the extraordinary array of styles and movements they created. From the pointillist style of Seurat and his group, to the emerging symbolism of Gauguin and his circle, to the unique vision of Vincent van Gogh, this was the most exciting and influential avant-garde in the history of modern art. Bringing a wealth of new scholarship and insights to a neglected moment in art history, this book gathers together masterworks by some of the most popular artists of all time. Amazon.com Review
Most people think of van Gogh as a tortured loner, but the engrossing Vincent van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit Boulevard makes plain his great desire to be part of the art world of his time. Focusing on the years between 1886 (when he came to Paris) and 1890 (the year of his death), four art historians examine the competitive spirit of young radical painters who searched for ways to express their reactions to an industrialized world increasingly remote from the idealized values of peasant life. The painters (who included Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac, and Émile Bernard) were vastly different from one another in style and temperament. Yet van Gogh embraced them all as "painters of the petit boulevard"--fellow unrecognized artists toiling in out-of-the-way studios and showing their work in cafés rather than in swank galleries. Dreaming of founding a colony of like-minded painters he called "The Studio of the South," van Gogh decamped to Arles in 1888. But the only artist who joined him, for two stressful months, was Gauguin. Both were loners, and differences loomed large. While van Gogh worked from nature, conveying his physical engagement with thick marks on canvas, Gauguin looked inward, abstracting objects with a thin application of paint. Even on a personal level, Gauguin's swaggering ease with the local women magnified van Gogh's insecurities. Each essay illuminates a different aspect of the complex personal, social, and artistic motivations that fueled each "petit boulevard" artist's search for a personal artistic identity. Lavishly illustrated and fluidly written, this book is the catalog for an exhibition of the same name at the St. Louis Art Museum (through May 13, 2001) and the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt (June 8-September 2, 2001). --Cathy Curtis ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good
if you're intrigued with Van Gogh you'll enjoy this. But I don't recommend it to those who are not interested in the subjexct matter. If you're not into the subject you will find it dry.

I am enthralled with the life of this great artist, so I was into the book. To me it was fascinating.

Beautiful work of art.....
Having read VINCENT VAN GOGH AND THE PAINTERS OF THE PETIT BOULEVARD, I regret I did not get to the exhibt in Saint Louis or Frankfurt where it closed in September 2001. This lovely book was created as an exhibition catalogue, but one does not need to have seen the exhibition to benefit from reading the informative essays or looking at copies of beautiful works by Van Gogh, Gauguin and other memebers of the self-styled "Petit Boulevard" artists group.

Essays on topics related to the subject are preceded by text written by the editor and exhibit curator, Cornelia Homberg, ("Vincent van Gogh's Avant-Garde Strategies"). Homberg suggests the 'petit boulevard' was both an avant garde artistic movement following the Impressionists and an actual commercial location in Paris at the end of the 19th Century. The Exhibit featured works by members of the avant garde group (Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Signac, Pissaro, Toulous-Latrec, Anquetin, Bernard and others "petit" artists).

Homberg challenges the notion that Vincent van Gogh always worked alone and that his art was a "one-off" as other critics have suggested. She says Van Gogh was a member of an artists colony located in the vicinity rue Lepic where he lived with his brother Theo (Montmartre area), that he may have coined the phrase "Petit Boulevard" (he discussed it with Theo in their letters following his removal to Arles), and he saw himself as a leader of this innovative group (which he hoped to bring to Arles as a "brotherhood" of artists).

In his essay entitled "The Cultural Geography of the Petit Boulevard" Richard Thomas describes the material dimensions of the place and time within which the "petit boulevard" artists worked. He describes the "off-off-Broadway/Bourbon Street" atmosphere of the bohemian artistic community -- a proletarian territory dominated by factories, caberets, taverns, le circque, brothels, and other down scale establishments (Chat Noir, Molin Rouge) where 'decadent iconograpy' was born. He says artists such as Toulouse Latrec, Steinlin, Willith, and others developed commercial prints depicting this mileau.

In the third essay, Elizabeth Childs describes the escape of Gauguin and Seurat to Pont Aven and Van Gogh to Arles following their Paris adventures. Here the artists hoped to reconnect with the timeless cycles of nature and leave the crass, commercial, class-ridden city behind. Childs says once Gauguin reached Pont Aven, the Celtic Catholic nature of Brittany spurred Gauguin to develop a medieval stain-glass cloisonnist style of art. She contrasts Gauguin's work with Van Gogh's 'rural' art which he based on a love of Japanese prints (by Hiroshege and others) and what he fancied to be Japanese culture, as well as the Barbizon style which included Daumier and Millet. In the last essay, John House discusses landscapes by Van Gogh (who influenced by his Dutch predecessor Rembrandt and the French Millet) as well as other artists of the period including Gauguin.

The book is filled beautiful reproductions of the paintings and other works included in the Exhibit (prints and photographs of the various items of art, the people involved, and the places they lived and worked). Sadly, one would have to do quite a bit of traveling to recapitulate the Exhibit, and then the synergistic effect would be missing. On the other hand, the book is a solid testament to the art that followed Impressionism. Although I had seen many of the paintings in their home museums (National Gallery, Chicago Art Institute, D'Orsay, Van Gogh Museum, etc.) I had not seen some of the works in private hands, nor the photographs of the period. This book is a valuable addition to my collection.

Excellent companion to the exhibition
The Impressionist movement never really impressed me until I went and experienced this exhibit. This book is a great companion to the exhibit, going into much greater detail than the audio tour did, but can be equally appreciated (as a stand alone art history text) if you couldn't make it to St. Louis. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for information on some of the lesser known impressionists (those of the Petit Boulevard), as well as information on this brief period in van Gogh's life. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

A Gigglefest of Freudian Fallacies
Pure, unintentional, Freudian-style hilarity! This book is what happens when modern psychology ignores modern neuropathy. I was laughing until tears streamed down my face when I read the passage that states that Vincent's early work, (i.e. the Potato Eaters) was his superego rebelling against his mother's "Dutch cleanliness" and her refusal to allow the infant Vincent to smear feces on the walls of his nursery which then affected his pallete choice as an adult.Brown, yep. OK, I'm about to start laughing again . . . (whew!)

Vincent van Gogh was extraordinarily adept at introspection, and through reading his body of correspondence a student of psychology may glean an idea of van Gogh's state of agitation and alienation, and I recommend that a van Gogh scholar, or anyone with a genuine desire to better understand and empathize with van Gogh, read his correspondence instead of this book.

This book fails to lend any original - or even modern - insights, it is entirely too subjective, mired in neo-Freudian and occasionally, Jungian, conjecture, it lacks Gestalt, and works to distort and narrow the reader's perception of Vincent's gift as it related to his sustained neuropsychiatric state.

But, if you want to laugh (and laugh and laugh and laugh) at one scholar's attempt at deconstructing art and epileptiform neurological affect via Freud's ridiculous personality-based suppositions, read this book.

Once past the first chapter, really great book!
I really liked the perspective of looking at Van Gogh from a psychological view point. However, the first chapter is very dense with names of paintings and their deeper meaning. The author does much better in the subsequent chapters trying to discover Vincent the man.
A must read for anyone trying to understand Van Gogh!

The Only Van Gogh Biography I Can Recommend
Many biographies and abbreviated collections of Vincent's volumnous and passionate letters to his brother Theo have been published in recent years. The only one that I can recommend though is "Stranger on the Earth : A Psychological Biography of Vincent Van Gogh" by Albert J. Lubin, which provides a fascinating insight into Vincent's life and work. The author examines Vincent's fragile personality with a sensible balance of clinical observation and human compassion. The title "stranger on earth" is an apt description of how Vincent apparently felt about his life. I read this book cover to cover in a few days (a page-turner) and came away with an appreciative sense of Van Gogh as a complex personality driven alternately by great passion and great depression. A tragic yet very human story.

Outstanding!
Unlike most any biography out there, this book yeilds new insights to the man and his art.

Elegant, honorable, beautiful
The elegance with which he, Stone, makes manifest the life of this magnificent artist is breathtaking at times.This is not just the work to which all biographical material on Van Gogh is measured, but one of thebiographical novels by which all other biographies and biographical novelsshould be.It is imposiible to not get sucked into the narrative and feelwhat it was like to be in the company of men who are poised, with theirgifts, to change the way we look at the world and ourselves.Nor is itpossible to not come away sympathisizing, or even feeling a kinship withthe deeply troubled genius whose art bares witness to the human soul. I suggest you read this book if you are interested in anything regardingcreativity. Period. ... Read more

Product Description
hardcover book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Whether it's a $50m painting or a simple garden of Iris
Anyone interested in True Beauty as exemplified by Art would be most satisfied with this magnificent work.Not only are the illustrations first class, the breadth and depth is astonishing.This tomb has virtually ALLVan Gogh's works, etchings and all.It also tells the physical location ofhis work (as of 1970), and is considered the basis for all Van Gogh study. Many of his best works are color illustrated.My personal favorite being aportrait of an elderly seems to be sailor, sitting before a montage ofJapanese pictures.The dust cover is an absolutely beautiful rendition of"Starry Night".A must for any serious student or lover of greatArt.

Whether it's a $50m painting or a simple garden of Iris
Anyone interested in True Beauty as exemplified by Art would be most satisfied with this magnificent work.Not only are the illustrations first class, the breadth and depth is astonishing.This tomb has virtually ALLVan Gogh's works, etchings and all.It also tells the physical location ofhis work (as of 1970), and is considered the basis for all Van Gogh study. Many of his best works are color illustrated.My personal favorite being aportrait of an elderly seems to be sailor, sitting before a montage ofJapanese pictures.The dust cover is an absolutely beautiful rendition of"Starry Night".A must for any serious student or lover of greatArt. ... Read more

Product Description
The 3rd part in an eight-volume catalogue raisonne of Van Gogh''s work from the Van Gogh Museum Collection, this book covers the same period in the artist''s career as the two volumes on his drawings.' ... Read more

Product Description
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) created more than two thousand drawings and paintings in an art career that lasted just a decade. As prolific a writer as he was an artist, Van Gogh wrote hundreds of letters to his brother Theo. An excerpt from this correspondence accompanies each of the works reproduced in this calendar--among them Self-portrait, Plain near Auvers with Rain Clouds, The Yellow House, Vase with Sunflowers, Evening Landscape with Rising Moon, and Cypress against a Starry Sky.

Size: 12 x 13 in.; opens to 12 x 26 in. Printed on FSC certified paper with soy-based ink. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an illustrated study of Vincent Van Gogh, one of the great forerunners of 20th century painting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Beautiful book, exactly what I was looking for
I am using Photoshop and trying to emululate some artist's work. I found this book both informative about Van Gogh andthe prints had more than enough detail so I could see brush/knife strokes. very nice

Good, but not perfect
I have had good experiences with purchasing Taschen's introductory overviews on the various basic genres.I was expecting this book to adhere to the basic pattern:a few pages in the beginning to serve as a larger overview (in this case, a biography), while the rest of the book concentrates specifically on individual pieces of art (reproducing the art work in full on the right hand page, while furnishing a page long analysis on the left).

Unfortunately, that is not the way this work is constructed.It is one long biography with reproductions of art work interspersed here and there throughout the book.That means an art work under discussion in the text is often pages away from where it is being discussed.All the page flipping back and forth to match description with picture is confusing and tiring.One star off for the inconvenience.

Still, this is a highly serviceable introduction for the novice (of which I must count myself).The pictures are reproduced in good quality. The prose is intelligent and erudite, though a bit wordy at points. I walked away having a greater knowledge and appreciation of Van Gogh and his place in art history, and that is really what matters in the end.

A good find!
Cleaning out some bookshelves the other day (a never-ending task), I found this book which I boughtsome months ago. So I read it yesterday (it is just 96 pages) and even though I know quite a bit about Van Gogh, this was still a delight. Walther combines biography, paintings and analysis of them, and discussion of Van Gogh's techniques. I especially liked the illustrated time line at the end.

Very well done. This author clearly knows his art and artists. Great find!

A novice liked it
I spotted this book and, having been impressed by the Van Gogh exhibit at the National Gallery last year, decided to check it out. (That being said, I know very little about art and seldom read about it, so this reviewshould be taken in that light.)

Van Gogh was an amazingly prolificpainter. His artistic career lasted scarcely ten years, but in that time hecreated enough paintings to decorate nearly every page of this 250-pagebook - and those aren't even all of them.

The book itself is acombination of a biography and an analysis of his paintings. This flowssmoothly, perhaps because Van Gogh put so much of himself into his art: hismoods are clear from what he depicted and how he depicted it.

Thebiographical portion makes for interesting reading in and of itself. VanGogh actually came rather late to art after failing at other occupations,including that of a minister. Once he turns to art, he is almostimmediately remarkably capable. Later on, he attempts to set up an artisticcommunity in his famous "yellow house," with the help of Gaugain. It's acollaboration that fails disastrously, with Gaugain leaving and Van Goghcutting off his earlobe. Van Gogh has a difficult time psychologically fora few years, then, when it seems he has finally turned things around, goesout and shoots himself. The authors suggest it's due to his believe that adead artist is more valued than a live one, a strange but possibly truepremise.

The analysis of the paintings, comfortably intertwined with thebiographical information, are interesting as well, at least to someone likeme who only barely understands painting. While the analysis occasionallydescends into what is to me artsy gobbledegook, by and large the commentsare incisive and point out the distinctive qualities of each painting andhow it relates to his other work. The tone is positive and descriptive,which I liked. I could easily have imagined a much more critical approachor a tone that indicated this is the way to look at this painting. But theauthors fall into neither trap.

So this artistic novice, at least, foundthis to be an excellent book about a great artist. Recommended for allthose with an interest in the subject.

IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE COMPLETE PAINTING THIS IS FOR YOU
I purchased this book not being aware of the complete painting book but if I knew about the other one ( complete painting ) I probably would have chose that book for sure ! Anyway, as a second choise this is a great valuebook . The picture are beautifull and the text is full of detail about VanGogh's life that is exceeded only by the Letter to Theo book published byPenguin. Well,now that you know my opinion, order this book if you aretight with money; other wise you may consider the complete painting if thequality of the picture and the text is as good as this book. Ciao ... Read more

Customer Reviews (50)

Helps you appreciate a great artist
I went to NYC and wanted to visit the Met. I know a little about a lot of artists but really wanted to find out more. This book really helps you understand and appreciate the work of Van Gough. Amazing.

Falling in love all over again!
I don't read often, especially biographies. Van Gogh's life is incredible, and reading this book is helping me to understand and appreciate his work so much more. A perfect book!

Starry Starry Night
Stone captured all the beauty and pain expressed in Van Gogh's life. His search for God as a pastor, his sense of humanity when he was with the coal miners, his desire for affirmation and his passion for life all show the depth of his soul that lives on in his artwork. The author conveyed the essence of this man's life so eloquently.

LUST FOR LIFE
The book was a gift for my spouse at Christmas.They loved paging through the book and really loved it.

The Soul of An Artist
Irving Stone created a wondeful biography of Van Gogh, who is one of the definative "tortured" artists if for nothing more than his name is synonymous with the phrase to most people who are even casual fans of art.

In this book Stone captures the emotions of Van Gogh and the highs and lows of his life.This sheds even more meaning on his works of art.I was fortunate enough to see a Van Gogh Exhibition and hopefully will be able to do so again now that I read this.

I am sure it will add to viewing his works. ... Read more

Product Description
VINCENT VANGOGH

Few artists command such fervent devotion amongst art lovers and such high prices in the salerooms of the art world. Love him or hate him, Vincent van Gogh is one of a handful of artists who is now a cultural event.

Stuart Morris's study concentrates on the paintings first, and employs van Gogh's eloquent letters as an aesthetic reference point. Much of the book is concerned with metacriticism - the way van Gogh has been critically received over the years.

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most celebrated of painters.It's a bit of a mystery. The mystery (or irony) is that his paintingshave commanded the highest prices in the auction rooms of the contemporary art world (88 million dollars, 53 million dollars, and so on), yet he only managed to sell one painting during his lifetime, and he lived in poverty (with financial support from his brother Theo).

Why is Vincent van Gogh so popular? His legend has developed relatively rapidly. His art is loved by the critics and public. The crazy prices paid for single oil paintings are the manifestations of the fervour that van Gogh seems to generate. He is one of the handful of painters who cause great excitement every time exhibitions of his work are put on. One thinks also of Claude Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonaroti and Pablo Picasso. These are artists that the public go mad for, so that when they are exhibited, there are huge queues trailing around the block.

The 1990 centenary celebrations of 'poor Vincent' showed how much he is exalted. There were films about him, discussions and conferences, TV documentaries, magazine articles, reviews, letters, and much merchandize was sold, to the great glee of the manufacturers: posters, tea towels, calendars, mugs, souvenirs of all kinds. What would the dishevelled, obsessive man who painted those small canvases in the years up to 1890 in Southern France make of the amazing fuss that now surrounds his work? What would van Gogh think of just one of his paintings being bought for 88 million dollars? It is a huge sum even in today's expensive world. You could build a hospital or two with the money. Imagine it! Did Vincent know that when he painted those blue irises on that small, standard-size canvas, that it would one day be 'worth' millions of dollars?

I shall count myself very happy if I can manage to work enough to earn my living, for it worries me a lot when I think that I have done so many pictures and drawings without ever selling one.

Like the workers he depicted in numerous images, Vincent van Gogh himself worked very hard to improve his art. With a dogged determination van Gogh copied the Old Masters, as well as Japanese prints. His determined self-education and self-improvement paid off, resulting in more than 800 paintings in about 8 years. The years of van Gogh's art are relatively few - nearly all of the important works were made in the decade 1880-90. Hence his paintings are credited in art history books with the month and sometimes the day as well as the year of production. For most artists, 1889 would suffice. For van Gogh, the credit is October 1889. Producing 800 paintings in 8 years is an average of a hundred per year, or one every three and a half days. More likely, van Gogh would have worked on a number at the same time, or within a short space of time.