The World According to Vincent van Gogh (The World According To. Series, 7)

A collection of quotes from Vincent van Gogh on art, love, nature, color, ambition, friendship, future, sorrow, and consolation.

"I believe that at present we must paint nature's rich and magnificent aspects; we need good cheer and happiness, hope and love." ― Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo form what is perhaps the most frank and unique body of artists' correspondence ever written―one that offers a rare insight into Van Gogh’s mental turmoil and artistic motivations. His descriptions of everyday concerns are interspersed with highly intense passages, beautiful sentences, and wise words on subjects such as ambition, love, loneliness, and his battle with mental illness. These surprising, melancholy, and sometimes funny comments continue to inspire and console many people today, some 130 years after he wrote them.

This selection of Van Gogh's most beautiful quotations unites his exceptional and touching words with reproductions of his much-loved artworks. They convey the same kind of recognition and emotion that he sought to achieve with his art. He was eager to reach other people and to mean something to them―but he could never have suspected that through his immense talent for capturing personal experiences, ideas, and feelings in evocative and appealing language, that he had genuine life lessons to offer us. "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 colors, but there's the art of words that will last just the same."

71 color illustrations

Nienke Bakker is senior curator at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Ann Blokland is senior curator of education at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Esther Darley is a writer on arts and culture.