Wednesday, December 9, 2009

“I’ve now also painted a woman reading a novel.”


A very impressive digital collection of van Gogh’s correspondence, complimenting the publication of a new critical edition of them, is available from http://vangoghletters.org/vg/.

From The Economist review of the book:
The publication of the six volumes is cause for celebration. To have all the artist’s words together with all those images is like being given a pair of super-special 3D spectacles. The resulting self-portrait has a depth that would not exist were this a collection only of images or only of words. This could be the best autobiography of an artist yet to appear anywhere.
Image: Detail from a letter to Willemien van Gogh, Arles, circa 12 November 1888.