The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study

When he died at the age of thirty-seven, Vincent van Gogh left a legacy of over two thousand artworks, for which he is now justly famous. But van Gogh was also a prodigious writer of letters - more than eight hundred of them, addressed to his parents, to friends such as Paul Gauguin, and, above all,...

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Glavni autor: Patrick Grant
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Izdano: Athabasca University Press 2021
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author Patrick Grant
author_browse Patrick Grant
author_facet Patrick Grant
author_sort Patrick Grant
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description When he died at the age of thirty-seven, Vincent van Gogh left a legacy of over two thousand artworks, for which he is now justly famous. But van Gogh was also a prodigious writer of letters - more than eight hundred of them, addressed to his parents, to friends such as Paul Gauguin, and, above all, to his brother Theo. His letters have long been admired for their exceptional literary quality, and art historians have sometimes drawn on the letters in their analysis of the paintings. And yet, to date, no one has undertaken a critical assessment of this remarkable body of writingÑnot as a footnote to the paintings but as a highly sophisticated literary achievement in its own right. Patrick Grant's long-awaited study provides such an assessment and, as such, redresses a significant omission in the field of van Gogh studies. As Grant demonstrates, quite apart from furnishing a highly revealing self-portrait of their author, the letters are compelling for their imaginative and expressive power, as well as for the perceptive commentary they offer on universal human themes. Through a subtle exploration of van Gogh's contrastive style of thinking and his fascination with the notion of imperfection, Grant illuminates gradual shifts in van Gogh's ideas on religion, ethics, and the meaning of art. He also analyzes the metaphorical significance of a number of key images in the letters, which prove to yield unexpected psychological and conceptual connections, and probes the relationships that surface when the letters are viewed as a cohesive literary product. The result is a wealth of new insights into van Gogh's inner landscape.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-516062022-01-31T09:31:27Z The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study Patrick Grant Literary criticism Paul Gauguin Idealism Letter-writing Religion Art history Theo Van Gogh Rembrandt When he died at the age of thirty-seven, Vincent van Gogh left a legacy of over two thousand artworks, for which he is now justly famous. But van Gogh was also a prodigious writer of letters - more than eight hundred of them, addressed to his parents, to friends such as Paul Gauguin, and, above all, to his brother Theo. His letters have long been admired for their exceptional literary quality, and art historians have sometimes drawn on the letters in their analysis of the paintings. And yet, to date, no one has undertaken a critical assessment of this remarkable body of writingÑnot as a footnote to the paintings but as a highly sophisticated literary achievement in its own right. Patrick Grant's long-awaited study provides such an assessment and, as such, redresses a significant omission in the field of van Gogh studies. As Grant demonstrates, quite apart from furnishing a highly revealing self-portrait of their author, the letters are compelling for their imaginative and expressive power, as well as for the perceptive commentary they offer on universal human themes. Through a subtle exploration of van Gogh's contrastive style of thinking and his fascination with the notion of imperfection, Grant illuminates gradual shifts in van Gogh's ideas on religion, ethics, and the meaning of art. He also analyzes the metaphorical significance of a number of key images in the letters, which prove to yield unexpected psychological and conceptual connections, and probes the relationships that surface when the letters are viewed as a cohesive literary product. The result is a wealth of new insights into van Gogh's inner landscape. 2021-02-11T17:38:19Z 2021-02-11T17:38:19Z 2014-08-04 17:04:53 2014 book 16235 19158378 9781927356760 9781927356746 9781927356753 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/51606 eng Cultural Dialectics image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120236 Athabasca University Press 10.15215/aupress/9781927356746.01 10.15215/aupress/9781927356746.01 6b1b8af7-79e4-4b18-b297-b983df0f073f 9781927356760 9781927356746 9781927356753 254 open access
spellingShingle Literary criticism
Paul Gauguin
Idealism
Letter-writing
Religion
Art history
Theo Van Gogh
Rembrandt
Patrick Grant
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study
title The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study
title_full The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study
title_fullStr The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study
title_full_unstemmed The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study
title_short The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study
title_sort letters of vincent van gogh a critical study
topic Literary criticism
Paul Gauguin
Idealism
Letter-writing
Religion
Art history
Theo Van Gogh
Rembrandt
topic_facet Literary criticism
Paul Gauguin
Idealism
Letter-writing
Religion
Art history
Theo Van Gogh
Rembrandt
url 16235
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