Van Gogh : The Life / Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith

Includes bibliographical references (pages [895]-918) and index.

Prologue: A fanatic heart -- The early years, 1853-1880 -- Dams and dikes -- An outpost on the heath -- A strange boy -- God and money -- The road to Rijswijk -- The exile -- Imitation of Christ -- Pilgrim's progress -- O Jerusalem, O Zundert -- Head to the wind -- "Dat is het" -- The black country -- The land of pictures -- The Dutch years, 1880-1886 -- Hearts of ice -- Aimer encore -- A draftsman's fist -- My little window -- Orphan man -- Jacob and Esau -- Castles in the air -- The prisoner -- La joie de vivre -- The waternix -- A grain of madness -- In one rush -- Lost illusions --The French years, 1886-1890 -- Against the grain -- The Zemganno brothers -- Catch and release -- A mercenary frenzy -- Le paradou -- The sunflower and the oleander -- The poet's garden -- Imaginary savage -- La lutte -- The stranger -- Two roads -- The real south -- Starry night -- The isolated one -- "A degenerate child" -- The garden and the wheat field -- Illusions fade; the sublime remains -- Ici repose -- Appendix. A note on Vincent's fatal wounding.

Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials. While drawing liberally from the artist's famously eloquent letters, they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences, illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of Van Gogh's troubled, restless soul. Naifeh and Smith bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist-his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; his impetus for turning to brush and canvas; and his move to Provence, where in a brief burst of incandescent productivity he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art. The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Gogh's inner world: his deep immersion in literature and art; his erratic and tumultuous romantic life; and his bouts of depression and mental illness. Though countless books have been written about Van Gogh, and though the broad outlines of his tragedy have long inhabited popular culture, no serious, ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than seventy years.