VAN GOGH AND THE ARTISTS HE LOVED

A celebration of one of the world’s greatest artists and the works that inspired him.

As Naifeh notes in the introduction to this handsome, photo-heavy book, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) “never saw himself as a revolutionary artist.” His work “built on a strong foundation of the art that had come before him,” and he made “his own very personal versions of their paintings.” In this companion volume to Naifeh’s 2011 biography, Van Gogh, the author describes the ways in which van Gogh’s forebears and contemporaries had a profound impact on his work. Throughout the book, which is divided into chapters that highlight the schools and movements that influenced van Gogh and the subjects he painted, Naifeh places another artist’s work and van Gogh’s on facing pages to demonstrate the unique variations. Among the examples, the author shows that Jacob Hendricus Maris’ Two Girls at the Piano “made such an impression” that it led to van Gogh’s more vivid Marguerite Gachet at the Piano, a “boldly brushed painting, thick with impasto”; that Monet’s Fishing Boats at Étretat influenced Fishing Boats on the Beach at Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer; and more. Naifeh amply quotes from van Gogh’s letters to his brother, Theo, a body of analysis so profound that Naifeh calls it “a literary masterpiece in its own right.” The book is occasionally repetitive. More than once, for example, the author notes that Dutch painter Anton Mauve encouraged van Gogh to master the art of drawing the figure by drawing still lifes and plaster casts, but van Gogh resisted. But as excuses for collecting paintings between the pages of a book go, this is a good one, with learned explanations, dozens of beautiful reproductions, and an especially moving essay about the author and his husband of 40 years, scholar Gregory White Smith, who died in 2014, and their love of art.

An accessible, heartfelt introduction to van Gogh’s work and life.