The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (Penguin Classics)

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Van Gogh was an avid reader, and his letters reflect his literary pursuits as well as a uniquely authentic literary style. It has been a fascinating process to be able to follow how he gradually discovered his painting vocation, which happened relatively late. After years of anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness he died aged 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was often unhappy and he did suffer from a mental illness of some sort, which did indeed lead him to sever a portion of his own ear. From English literature his favourites were clearly Charles Dickens and, very dear to him, George Eliot.

The Chair takes the daily object from his bedroom; van Gogh also painted Gauguin’s Chair as the title suggests. Not only do they throw light on Van Gogh’s own complex and intriguing character, they enlighten the whole creative process as seen through his eyes. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885).

Van Gogh himself had, however, quite a different opinion, seeing his suffering and illness as a distraction or an obstacle, something to be endured but not sought. Then again, this was back in the days when people namely communicated by letter, but then we live in an age where people mainly communicate by WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Skype, and I’m sure there are people out there that keep pretty much every message sent to them. In this Penguin Classics edition, the letters are selected and edited by Ronald de Leeuw, and translated by Arnold Pomerans in Penguin Classics. The letters, most written to his brother Theo Van Gogh, express Van Gogh's thinking on life and art. May mắn làm sao khi Theo không chỉ dành cả đời để giúp đỡ người anh bất hạnh, mà kể cả sau khi mất, ông và vợ vẫn giữ gìn những lá thư mà anh trai ông gửi, để cả thế giới được nhìn thấy một bi kịch thật đẹp, về một nghệ sĩ điên nhưng tỉnh táo nhất, một người buồn nhưng lạc quan nhất, đã từng hiện diện, từng bị chối bỏ, và rồi được yêu thương nhất.

Additionally he read novels written by George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, and Charles Dickens, as well as John Keats's poetry, reading mostly at night when the light was too poor for painting. Not only do they throw light on Van Gogh's own complex and intriguing character, they enlighten the whole creative process as seen through his eyes.Most of the second part of the book we follow his journey as he learns the art of becoming a painter, and he was very fortunate that his brother continues to support him throughout this endeavour. He was currently working on the painting, which was to become one of his first complex compositions with multiple figures, and illustrated the letter with a sketch of the work, writing "See, this is what the composition has now become.