Vincent Van Gogh, Painted with Words: The Letters to Emile Bernard - Hardcover

Jansen, Leo; Luitjen, Hans; Bakker, Nienke; The Van Gogh Museum

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847829936 ISBN 13: 9780847829934

Publisher: Rizzoli, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Leo Jansen is the Van Gogh Museum’s curator of paintings. He and Hans Luijten are editors of the Van Gogh Letters project. Nienke Bakker is a research assistant on the project.

Review:

No one can fail to be totally and completely absorbed by this magnificent book produced by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker, the editors of the Van Gogh Letters project at the Van Gogh Museum, in collaboration with The Morgan Library and Museum in New York...Painted with Words is an exceptional work which brings van Gogh, the painter, writer and human being heart-rendingly close, showing that van Gogh's madness was that of a passionate genius whose paintings did not sell, whose doctors did not understand his illness, and who was insulted and cast out by a society whom he did not flatter. -- culturekiosque.com September 2007

VINCENT VAN GOGH, PAINTED WITH WORDS: THE LETTERS TO ÉMILE BERNARD edited by Leo Jansen, Hans Luitjen and Nienke Bakker (Rizzoli, 384 pages; $50). Much more than a catalog, this book accompanying the Morgan Library & Museum's current exhibition includes lively English translations of van Gogh's spirited correspondence with his younger friend Bernard. While the paintings should be appreciated in person, the letters -- also transcribed in French and reproduced in facsimile -- work best in book form. Adorned with van Gogh's sketches, they begin with his move from Paris to the rural town of Arles in 1887 and end just a few months before his suicide in 1889. In impassioned and often coarse language, he celebrates earthly pleasures, extols Rembrandt, Courbet and Millet, and indulges in ecstasies of color. KAREN ROSENBERG -- New York Times 12/7/07

About this edition

• Publisher: Rizzoli
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0847829936
• ISBN 13: 9780847829934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384