Description
The Van Gogh File: The Myth and the Man by Ken Wilkie is the fruit of a thirty-year quest. For three decades, Wilkie has followed Vincent van Gogh's trail across Europe, seeking to separate the facts of the artist's life from the legend that grew around him — and what he found challenges much of what we think we know. Through interviews with descendants of those who knew Van Gogh, including a descendant of his personal physician, and through medical records and recent discoveries, Wilkie pieces together a portrait of the man behind the myth. The book examines Van Gogh's family ties, the houses he lived in, newly uncovered letters, and the mysteries of his final days — questioning the stories that have calcified into truth.
Part detective story, part travelogue, The Van Gogh File is essential reading for art lovers who want to look beyond the romantic clichés. Wilkie, author of The Van Gogh Assignment, writes with the authority of someone who has walked the same roads as Van Gogh — and returned with a more human, more complex artist than the legend allows. Rather than retelling the familiar version of Van Gogh's life, the book tests it: it revisits the places, the documents, and the people, and asks which parts of the story survive contact with the evidence. You will come away with a clearer sense of Van Gogh as a working artist — disciplined, well-read, and deliberate — instead of the popular image of a purely tormented figure painting in a frenzy.
This book is for readers who already love Van Gogh's paintings and want to know the person behind them, for biography lovers who enjoy a mystery investigated rather than merely retold, and for travelers who want to follow an artist's life across the Netherlands, Belgium, and France with a knowledgeable guide. It pairs naturally with a book of Van Gogh's paintings or drawings: look at the art first, then read Wilkie to understand the life that produced it. Get the ebook edition here at a discount from Tellebook.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet