Living with Vincent van Gogh

I enjoyed the way the author shared Vincent van Gogh’s personal journey in life, and how his art developed along the way. I was surprised to see how many different places he lived during his life and how his life experiences influenced his work.Painting and drawing didn’t come to Van Gogh easily. He had to work at it. Although, he had a true dedication to knowledge and to learning his craft, he struggled with traditional schooling and never completed a formal study of any sort. He was fluent in English, French and German, but the book never tells us how he learned stet languages. Although he did go to boarding school as a child, I’ll have to look into his educational background at a later date to uncover how he learned so much.Van Gogh family relationships were challenging at best. His father was a minister and Van Gogh didn’t get along with him. He studied theology and considered going into the ministry, once again, he didn’t fit in to the traditional schooling required for that vocation. As you can see, he grappled with finding the right occupation.It seemed the only true family relationship he had was with his brother Teo, and Teo supported Vincent emotionally as well as financially most of his life.While Van Gogh was in his thirties, he lived outside of Paris, Montmartre, and worked alongside other artists painting and showing their work to the general public, but Van Gogh had a temper and didn’t control it well, so he was asked to leave that community.On a side note, he sure loved the Brothels.In his thirties, Van Gogh suffered from hallucinations, which led him to admit himself into an Asylum for many years. Many thought he suffered from epilepsy or borderline bipolar disorder, but to this day, no one is sure what his true issues where.He was released from the asylum and later shot himself in the chest and died the next day. His brother Teo died 6 months later. What an amazing and well-written story.

The book is excellent. Exactly what I wanted. It will add to my van Gogh collection. Thanks!

A wonderful collection to my art history books

This is my second book on Van Gogh from Martin Bailey, the first being Starry Night. While that book concentrated on the artistically creative year spent at the asylum near St. Remy, this book has a larger biographical and educational goal. Here we learn about the places Van Gogh lived during his 37 years and of many of the major people he interacted with during that time.Along the way, Living with Van Gogh is illustrated with the his art at various stages allowing an excellent view of his evolution. There are also old and contemporary photographs of many of his subjects, human, structural and landscape. There are clear indications of Van Gogh’s evolving techniques which I enjoyed. They likely wouldn’t be as surprising or new for someone more well versed in art. But for someone with much interest but less knowledge, like myself, There is much new to find.. Another plus—finding examples of art that I have never seen before. Also, Bailey’s style is conversational and comfortable reading.All in all, I found this to be a very successful book that meets its goal of presenting Van Gogh in his various home and natural settings, the settings that inspired creations known around the world.P.S. I neglected to mention that there are ample endnotes to document the author’s writing. There is also a lengthy bibliography of sources for further investigation of Van Gogh and his art.A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

If you've read any of Martin Bailey's other books on Van Gogh then you will see a considerable overlap between them and this one. Sometimes a thematic approach to analysing an artist's work is pulled off, and sometimes not - in this case I feel the author has to try too hard to make his point. Only perhaps in the South of France does the theme really work, with Van Gogh himself referring to the special light, but having read a number of books about Van Gogh, I feel his state of mind was a much more significant influence on his work than where he lived.

Un recorrido por la vida del autor a través de sus obras. Sorprende muchísimo y es super interesante. No hace falta saber de arte para leer este libro. Viene con muchas ilustraciones.La única pega que le veo es que me lo esperaba más pequeño para poder llevarlo conmigo, se queda para lectura de hogar.

El libro es increíble, justo lo que buscaba por un precio bastante accesible. Si le pongo cuatro estrellas es porque venía mal empacado, tal cual solo metieron el artículo (que encima no tenía ni la usual bolsita de plático) en la caja y ya está. Siento que no puedo quejarme mucho porque apenas costó más de $100, pero ojalá cuidaran más esos detalles.