Meyer Schapiro

Presents a study of nineteenth-century Dutch-born artist Vincent van Gogh, tracing his developing technique, discussing his original use of color, and examining the connections between events in his life and his painting. Features forty color plates, each with commentary, as well as black-and-white reproductions.

Vincent van Gogh's life and work are so intertwined that it is hardly possible to observe one without thinking of the other. Van Gogh has indeed become the incarnation of the suffering, misunderstood martyr of modern art, the emblem of the artist as an outsider. An article, published in 1890, gave details about van Gogh's illness. The author of the article saw the painter as "a terrible and demented genius, often sublime, sometimes grotesque, always...