Vincent's Books by Mariella Guzzoni

Vincent's Books by Mariella Guzzoni

Books and reality and art are the same kind of thing for me.

One of the most famous artists in history, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was also a man with another powerful passion--for books. An insatiable reader, Van Gogh spent his life hungrily consuming as many books as he could. He read, re-read, and copied out books in Dutch, English, and French. He knew many passages by heart from works by Dickens, Zola, Shakespeare, and Maupassant, among many others. As he wrote to his brother, Theo, in one of their hundreds of letters: I have a more or less irresistible passion for books.

In Vincent's Books, Mariella Guzzoni explores Van Gogh's life as a voracious bookworm, noting what he read, what he wrote about, and how his love of reading influenced his artwork. She walks us through his life, chapter by chapter: from his early adulthood, when he considered becoming a pastor, to his decision to be a painter, to the tragically short end of his life. He moved from Holland to Paris to Provence; at each moment, ideas he encountered in books defined and guided his thoughts and his worldview. Van Gogh wrote with eloquence and insight about what he was reading in his letters to Theo, referring to at least two hundred authors. Books and readers are frequent subjects of his paintings, and Guzzoni highlights over one hundred of these works, such as Still life with Bible in the Van Gogh Museum and his vivid paintings of L'Arlesienne with a stack of books under her arm.

A gorgeously illustrated biography that will appeal to any booklover, Vincent's Books takes us on a fresh, fascinating journey through the pages of a beloved artist's life.

Guzzoni, Mariella: - Mariella Guzzoni is an independent scholar and art curator living in Bergamo, Italy. Over many years, she has collected editions of the books that Vincent van Gogh read and loved.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780226706467
ISBN 10	022670646X
Title	Vincent's Books
Author	Mariella Guzzoni
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	The University of Chicago Press
Year published	2020-03-10
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable