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Vincent's Portraits

Paintings and Drawings by Van Gogh

Ralph Skea

£14.99

An attractive and accessible survey of some of the world’s most popular images: the portraits and self-portraits of Vincent van Gogh

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Overview

Despite his posthumous fame as a painter of flowers, still-lifes, gardens, landscapes and city scenes, during his lifetime Vincent van Gogh believed that his portraits constituted his most important works. Although as an artist he was ‘touched by so many different things’, he was nevertheless committed to the art of portraiture – a quality that distinguished him from his contemporaries. Van Gogh was passionate in his avoidance of bland, photographic resemblances, in the hope of capturing the essential character of his models by means of expressive colour and brushwork.

Showcasing a dramatic set of portraits created during Van Gogh’s ten-year career, this book reflects the strong visual impact with which the artist captured the diversity of contemporary life. In his many portraits, we can discern the artist’s desire to record expressively a number of themes, from the plight of the agricultural workers in his native Brabant and the destitution of prostitutes and their children in urban Europe, to the lives of his cosmopolitan acquaintances in Paris, including café owners and art dealers. It was here that he began his remarkable sequence of self-portraits. With reference to Van Gogh’s extensive correspondence, Skea elaborates how the artist perceived his chosen subjects as would a writer, and how he felt that his portraits should somehow evoke what he considered to be the spiritual underpinning of human existence.

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Reviews

'Sheds new light on Vincent Van Gogh's paintings and his enigmatic personality'
The Courier (Dundee)

Product Information

Book Details

Format: Quarterbound/PLC (no jacket)

Size: 23.0 x 16.0 cm

Extent: 112 pp

Illustrations: 87

Publication date: 15 March 2018

ISBN: 9780500519660

Contents List

Introduction: ‘And painted portraits have a life of their own that comes from deep in the soul of the painter…’ • 1. The Netherlands • 2. Paris • 3. Arles • 4. Saint-Rémy de Provence • 5. Auvers-sur-Oise • Sources of Quotations, Further Reading

About the Author

Ralph Skea is a former Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He is the author of Vincent’s Gardens, Vincent’s Trees, Monet’s Trees and Vincent’s Portraits, all published by Thames & Hudson.

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