De brieven: De volledige, geïllustreerde en geannoteerde uitgave

by Vincent van Gogh (Editor), Leo Jansen (Editor), Hans Luijten (Editor)

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) gave the world not just an abundance of remarkable paintings and drawings but also the most intriguing and multifaceted correspondence of an artist ever known. The 902 letters, more than 800 of which are preserved in the Van Gogh Museum, tell the story of his eventful life in a direct, compelling style, detailing his close ties with his brother and confidant Theo, and the evolution of his work. For years now art historians, other interested parties and enthusiasts have been stressing the need for a text edition in which the letters are printed exactly as Van Gogh wrote them, without embellishment, modernisation, adaptation or omission. The Letters Project For the past 15 years the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Huygens Institute in The Hague have been working on a new scholarly text edition of this correspondence, an edition that meets the most demanding requirements of quality and scholarship. The result is a complete, modern edition of the correspondence for an international public which reflects the current state of knowledge and will be published both digitally and in book form. The Letters Project is the most ambitious undertaking ever launched by the Van Gogh Museum. It is unique in the breadth and depth of the research and the comprehensiveness with which the results are presented to the reader. The book and web editions will be vital sources for anyone wishing to learn more about Van Gogh. The innovations are as follows: - a new text as close to the original as possible - a full annotation of the letters - reproductions of all the works of art mentioned in the letters - new datings of the letters - a new English translation of the letters - a new French translation of the letters written in Dutch - a completely revised and edited Dutch translation of the letters written in French In the past few years the project has served as the basis for further research on Van Gogh's life and for other activities taking place in and outside the Van Gogh Museum, including several successful exhibitions. In 2007 the editors were responsible for the publication of the exhibition catalogue Vincent van Gogh: Painted with words. The letters to Emile Bernard (New York, The Morgan Library & Museum). The distinguished American author John Updike published an enthusiastic review of this publication in the New York Review of Books, calling it a 'model volume of scholarship'. The book edition The value of the new book edition over and above earlier ones lies first and foremost in the underlying principle of the Letters Project, which is to present Van Gogh's correspondence to the public as faithfully as possible. The 6-volume edition contains all the known letters from and to Vincent van Gogh, and is based on a close reading of the manuscripts. The letters are accompanied by an introduction, an explanation of the topics discussed and new datings. Every single work of art mentioned by Van Gogh is now reproduced in its context for the first time: not only the paintings and drawings that Van Gogh was working on but also those by other artists that he mentions. The book edition makes the letters accessible not only to a specialist readership of art historians and literary scholars but also to admirers of Van Gogh. They are now given the opportunity to read the letters in the correct version and in the proper art-historical context. The web edition There will also be a web edition of the letters. This English-language academic website will comprise all the known letters to and from Van Gogh in the original version, including images of the authentic manuscripts. The web edition differs from the book edition in the greater amount of scholarly information that is made available. The letters The worldwide reputation of Van Gogh's correspondence rests on its great value as a document humain and on its wealth of biographical and art-historical information. The letters tell the story of his eventful life, detailing his close ties with his brother and confidant Theo, and the evolution of his artistic skills, all in a direct, compelling style. The reader is made the witness to his dreams and disappointments, passions and struggles, friendships and arguments, the battle with his illness, and the overriding desire to make art that would stand the test of time. The total correspondence consists of 819 letters written by Van Gogh and 83 addressed to him. By far the majority were written to his brother Theo, who provided financial and moral support throughout the ten years of his career as an artist. Van Gogh also corresponded with other members of his family and with artist friends. Those relationships were on another plane from that with his brother, and the letters are consequently different in tone, content and style. The letters are not only an invaluable source of biographical data and information on Van Gogh's ideas about art and the career of an artist. The many sketches of his own works that ...

2240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2010

About the author

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.

Van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence.

Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.

In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.

In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.

Reviews

[Leo Van gerwen]

Interessant!