Vincent Van Gogh: The Painter and the Portraits

Vincent Van Gogh: Painter & Portrait accompanies the international loan exhibition and explores the artist's changing view of how the portrait was produced. From his first experiments with character studies around 1880 to his transition to new media and representations, this includes pieces from the artist's letters to provide a fine portrait of Van Gogh's perspective.

The eight by seven and a half format makes it easy to carry around and digest, but tasty enough to encourage the reader to look up more of Van Gogh's letters than those quoted, and references to other paintings. The overview of his Van Gogh's life emphasizes his intellect and relationship with other art lovers rather than illness and matters of the heart. What I love about this book are the close-up reproductions that clearly show details, like how Van Gogh painted the eye, sometimes very photographically, other times as a single stroke. A series of portraits like those of Postman Roulin illuminate the intensity of van Gogh's passion to conquer composition and color. Both words and pictures offer surprises for even those familiar with van Gogh's life and work.