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Μεγάλα Μουσεία #4

Vincent van Gogh: Masters of Art

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This generously illustrated volume on the work of Vincent van Gogh makes the world's greatest art accessible to readers of every level of appreciation. Tracing the arc of van Gogh's career, this volume presents his portraits and self-portraits, landscapes, and haunting interiors. Readers will learn deteails of van Gogh's complicated personal life including his struggles with mental illness and his close but difficult relationship with his brother, Theo. Overflowing with impeccably reproduced images, this book offers full-page spreads of masterpieces as well as highlights of smaller details-allowing the viewer to appreciate every aspect of the artist's technique and oeuvre. Chronologically arranged, the book covers important biographical and historic events that reflect the latest scholarship. Additional information includes a list of works, timeline, and suggestions for further reading.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

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Paola Rapelli

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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
Profile Image for cinnamon girl ୨୧.
161 reviews38 followers
June 20, 2021
Stvarno na lep način prikazan život umetnika i njegova dela. Jedva čekam da kupim i ostale knjige kolekcije. 💫
Profile Image for Leon McNair.
110 reviews7 followers
March 17, 2022
Masters Of Art Van Gogh

A good book to pair with this reading might be - Vincent van Gogh: A Life in Letters, Nienke Bakker


A pleasantly written and concise book giving tribute to one of the greatest artists in history, Vincent Van Gogh. The book itself is just one in a long series dedicated to great artists throughout history, entitled Masters Of Art.

Van Gogh's intense and perilous journey was often what led him to create impactful studies and finished impasto-type paintings. His precise but fierce brushstrokes exuberated passion and virtuosity - his ultimate goal, which can never be truly replicated by expert skill nor properly described in exquisite detail, but Van Gogh's legacy as the tragic artist who never saw his brilliance take off publicly, and his style of courageous and excited brushstrokes embracing intense, oft-bright, and pure harmony and contrasting themes, lives on through his surviving works. While outwardly Vincent clashed with the world and saw it different to us, he sometimes found the peace he sought in his painting: a happiness, in which the world had failed him on. However, of most paramount to his sanity and keenness to hone skill was his correspondence with his brother, Theo. Though Vincent was financially dependent on his younger brother, and Theo was deemed "tainted" with his association by those high-class artists and businesses he'd wish to deal with, the brothers' love for each other encouraged them on to continue the patronage and legacy, and kept them intertwined, and it thus transcended the constant problems they would face.

Each painting held within the book serves as visual aides for the author's narration in describing Vincent's life and evolving use of colour and expression, from at first being inspired by Impressionist painters and Japanese prints, into a fully-fledged original style where Vincent, who had embarked on a tempestuous quest to explore the use of colour, conquered and claimed the style now known as "expressionism" with such animation and force, much that can be seen through his more classically known paintings like Starry Night or the Cornfields With Cypresses. Whilst the book serves more like an introduction, the reader is guided through Vincent's perilous, lonely, life-journey that takes him from Borinage to Paris, London to Provence, from Arles to Auvers; as a student, as a teacher; from a minister, to an art dealer, before becoming the man he was fated to be: the artist.
Profile Image for Νόρα.
256 reviews37 followers
January 6, 2016
Το μουσείο που θέλω να επισκεφτώ περισσότερο από όλα τα άλλα.Ο Βαν Γκογκ είναι ο αγαπημένος μου ζωγράφος.Αν είχα το απαραίτητο χρηματικό ποσό θα έκλεινα εισιτήρια αύριο κιόλας.
Profile Image for Lena.
117 reviews30 followers
December 27, 2019
Der Maler Vincent van Gogh schuf in seinem von Krankheit, Niederschlägen und Armut geprägten Leben unvergleichliche und intensive Werke, die dem Expressionismus den Weg ebneten. Anhand eines einführenden Textes wird der Künstler zunächst in den zeitlichen Kontext eingeordnet und somit seine Stellung in der Kunstgeschichte herausgearbeitet. Im weiteren folgt eine detaillierte und interessante biographische Darstellung seines Lebens und seiner Arbeit. Nebenbei werden seine Werke in chronologischer Reihenfolge passend zu dem jeweils angesprochenen Lebensabschnitt vorgestellt. Die Verschmelzung aus Biographie und der Vorstellung der Werke gelingt Paola Rapelli ganz wunderbar. Des Weiteren enthält das Buch eine Anthologie, sowie eine Liste der Museen die im Besitz seiner Werke sind.

Das Buch hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Das Leben Van Goghs ist detailliert und gut ausgearbeitet dargestellt worden. Die Darstellungen seiner Werke waren sehr hochwertig und deren Vorstellungen gut in den Kontext eingebettet. Gelegentlich hätte ich mir jedoch noch etwas mehr Hintergrundinformationen zu den einzelnen Werken gewünscht.
Abschließend kann ich das Buch jedoch wirklich weiterempfehlen und jedem ans Herz legen, der gerne mehr über das Leben dieses fantastischen Malers wissen möchte.
Profile Image for Nikki.
53 reviews5 followers
June 19, 2015
I thought the layout was wonderful and gave us a chance to follow along with Vincent's artistic progression. I would've liked for the book to spend a little more time on his famous Sunflowers though!
Profile Image for Lệ Lin.
225 reviews66 followers
May 20, 2019
I'm glad that the original German edition is translated into English because the book serves as a very good introduction to Van Gogh's life and work. It includes a brief and complete biography of the artist's life, the timelines with important events during his living years, a closer look behind each well-known work in chronological order and suggestions for further reading and locations to visit his paintings. I also discovered many more beloved works of Vincent van Gogh, such as Autumn Landscape with Four Trees, Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre (La Butte), Two Cut Sunflowers, Cypresses with Two Female Figures. One thing I need to mention that the photo quality is quite poor and the colours of Van Gogh's works are pretty much desaturated.

____

"Here art is linked to a message: art should evoke emotions. That is why it was important for Van Gogh not to paint things as they appear, objectively speaking, but rather as he saw them, transfigured by his emotions. That too leads to 'untruths, but to untruths that are truer than the outwardly visible truth.' ".

***

" 'My brushstroke does not keep to any one particular technique,' wrote Van Gogh to the painter Émile Bernard from Arles in April 1888: 'I thrust irregular brushstrokes onto the canvas and leave them as they are. Thick dabs of paint, bare patches of canvas, here and there a completely unfinished section, overpainting, roughness; in short the result is, I'm afraid, pretty disconcerting and annoying and will by no means satisfy those with established opinions about technique.'" ".
Profile Image for Liberty K.
304 reviews69 followers
July 13, 2015
Το επόμενο βήμα είναι να επισκεφτώ το μουσείο και να δω από κοντά τους πίνακες αυτού του μεγάλου ζωγράφου!
Profile Image for Teresa Locklear.
148 reviews3 followers
February 28, 2018
I picked this book up because I happen to see it on the wall of suggested books at my library. I really enjoyed looking at all the different types of art that Vincent Van Gogh did as well as reading about his life at the time of each. Amazing to think that his talent wasn't really recognized until after his death.
Profile Image for Rajesh Hegde.
26 reviews2 followers
October 18, 2018
Good introductory book to all the key paintings of Van gogh. Concise in the explanation and well illustrated. This book made me more curious about Van gogh life and his thought process, will read more about him in the future. The paintings are shown in chronological order so you can see the progression.
29 reviews28 followers
September 15, 2018
For the paintings of Van Gogh.. always 5*.. sadly there ain’t more stars available for the creator of starry night...
Profile Image for Dana.
25 reviews
March 27, 2017
This sad and uncomfortable life mixed with misery to one of the leader for the modern art. who came up with the most beautiful master piece. the heartbreaking story of Vencint Van Gogh made me question myself. how someone with all that unstable emotions and blurry vision could end up creating those magnificent masterpiece. Starry night, café terrace at night Alamod blossom and vase with Autumn Asters. how a very sad man can hold all that knowledge from three different languages and a great knowledge of the science of the space, can end up lonely with unbelievable ending.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews

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