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jazzy_daveMartin Gayford "The Yellow House" (Penguin)
Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin lived together for a few months in Arles, where they each produced some of their most famous paintings. But all was not peaceful and artistic harmony, and a lot of the problems stemmed from Vincent's volatility. This was an interesting and unflinching look at their lives during this time, including the bickering and brothels, and madness. Both of them wrote Vincent's brother (an art dealer) and others often, so there's quite a bit of documentation of how the two felt during those weeks. What really stuck with me were the descriptions of Vincent's mood swings. It's quite likely that one of the things plaguing him was bipolar disorder. This is a subject close to my heart, and I found it far more thought-provoking and even upsetting than I'd expected. But in a good way, if that makes any sense.
In terms of art, my favourites by far were the times when Gauguin and Vincent painted the same scene/person. Seeing their different interpretations side by side was simply fascinating. I definitely will need to pick up more books about these artists and their contemporaries.
A note on this edition: This is the fault of the publisher rather than the author, but the photographs really should be in colour. Colour is so important in both Vincent and Gauguin's paintings. I ended up looking up a lot of them on the net while I was reading. The black-and-white photos simply did not do them justice.
Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin lived together for a few months in Arles, where they each produced some of their most famous paintings. But all was not peaceful and artistic harmony, and a lot of the problems stemmed from Vincent's volatility. This was an interesting and unflinching look at their lives during this time, including the bickering and brothels, and madness. Both of them wrote Vincent's brother (an art dealer) and others often, so there's quite a bit of documentation of how the two felt during those weeks. What really stuck with me were the descriptions of Vincent's mood swings. It's quite likely that one of the things plaguing him was bipolar disorder. This is a subject close to my heart, and I found it far more thought-provoking and even upsetting than I'd expected. But in a good way, if that makes any sense.
In terms of art, my favourites by far were the times when Gauguin and Vincent painted the same scene/person. Seeing their different interpretations side by side was simply fascinating. I definitely will need to pick up more books about these artists and their contemporaries.
A note on this edition: This is the fault of the publisher rather than the author, but the photographs really should be in colour. Colour is so important in both Vincent and Gauguin's paintings. I ended up looking up a lot of them on the net while I was reading. The black-and-white photos simply did not do them justice.
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