This lavish but manageable book is the catalog for one of the most successful van Gogh exhibitions ever (at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through January 3, 1999, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from January 17, 1999, to April 4, 1999). Judging from the haunting, beautifully reproduced paintings and drawings in the book--which range from the iconic to the rarely seen--it is easy to see why hordes of people keep pressing through overcrowded galleries to get a glimpse of the originals. The ones here are all from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, where most of Vincent's work resides.

Author Richard Kendall does a heroic job of writing van Gogh's tortured story one more time. Few artists have analyzed their own work with the clarity and insight Vincent brought to his. And Kendall relies heavily on Vincent's letters to his brother Theo, giving the reader broad access to the ultimate expert, the painter himself. The wealth of color plates is intoxicating--70 paintings, including The Potato Eaters and other early, gloomy works, a dozen self-portraits, Almond Blossom, Wheatfield with Crows, Butterflies and Poppies, The Bedroom, The Zouave, and The Courtesan (van Gogh's take on a Japanese geisha in full regalia).

It seems trivial to further praise the book's designers for holding it to only 150 pages, but the length makes an important difference. This is a volume that fits comfortably on the lap, to be perused and enjoyed at close range, for hours if you want, and not just displayed in unwieldy glory on a coffee table. --Peggy Moorman


The New York Times Book Review, Hilarie M. Sheets
Richard Kendall's graceful essay walks the reader through van Gogh's surprisingly ordinary life as a little-known artist who ultimately made extraordinary paintings...


Book Description
The brilliantly colored paintings of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) are loved around the world. This stunning volume accompanies the largest exhibition of the artist's works outside the Netherlands in more than 25 years. The show opens at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in October 1998 and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in January 1999. This unique group of paintings is from the extraordinary collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, home to the single greatest assemblage of the artist's paintings, drawings, and letters. The collection is based on works acquired directly from the artist by his brother Theo, an art dealer and the source of Vincent's financial and emotional support. Among the museum's treasures reproduced here are some of the best-known images in art: Potato Eaters, The Bedroom, Self-Portrait as an Artist, Harvest, and Wheatfield with Crows. Richard Kendall's essay addresses Van Gogh's major themes and the different phases of his career. John Leighton contributes a history of the Van Gogh Museum and a biography of the artist. Richard Kendall is an independent scholar. John Leighton is director of the Van Gogh Museum

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses the greatest single collection of the master's work, much of which has traveled to America as part of the largest exhibition of Van Gogh work in a quarter of a century. Published in conjunction with the exhibition, this catalogue is a fascinating and wieldy distillation of the show thousands jammed the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., to see. It represents 70 paintings from all phases of the artist's prolific, albeit brief, career. With a concise but riveting biographical sketch by author Richard Kendall.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Van Gogh's Van Goghs presents seventy paintings from the extraordinary collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, home to the single greatest assemblage of the artist's paintings, drawings, and letters. The collection is based on works acquired directly from the artist by his brother Theo, an art dealer and the source of Vincent's financial and emotional support. All periods of Vincent van Gogh's brief but intensely productive career are represented: his earliest paintings in The Netherlands; his responses to French Impressionism in 1886; the images he painted while in hospitals in Arles and Saint-Remy in southern France; and his last, feverishly creative works in Auvers-sur-Oise. Van Gogh's Van Goghs represents a unique opportunity to sample the largest and most varied Van Gogh collection in the world. It accompanies a major exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

SYNOPSIS

This fabulous collection of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings accompanies the largest exhibition of the famous painter outside of the Netherlands in more than 25 years. The show opens at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in October 1998, and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in January 1999. Complete with more than 120 illustrations, 85 of which are color, this is a must for any fan of Van Gogh.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews

This is the catalog of the 1998-1999 exhibition of 70 paintings from the Van Gogh Museum, allowing lucky viewers in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles to see these paintings outside of Holland for the first time. Essays on the history of the Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh as a painter, and Van Gogh's life accompany the reproductions. A checklist of the exhibition is included.

Hilarie M. Sheets - The New York Times Book Review