Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved

The compelling story of how Vincent van Gogh developed his audacious, iconic style by immersing himself in the work of others, featuring hundreds of paintings by Van Gogh as well as the artists who inspired him--from the New York Times bestselling co-author of Van Gogh: The Life To us, Van Gogh's paintings look utterly unique. His vivid palates and wildly interpretive portraits are unmistakably his--yet however revolutionary his style may have been, it was actually built on a strong foundation of paintings by other artists, both his contemporaries and those who came before him. Now, drawing on Van Gogh's own thoughtful and often poetic comments about the artists he venerated, Steven Naifeh gives a gripping account of his deep immersion in their work. We see Van Gogh's gradual discovery of the subjects he would make famous, from wheat fields to sunflowers. We watch him copying the loose brushwork and bright colors used by douard Manet, experimenting with the Pointillist dots used by Georges Seurat, and imitating the powerful peasant farmers painted by Jean-Fran ois Millet, all vividly illustrated with 275 paintings by Van Gogh and a variety of other major artists, including Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, positioned side by side. Thanks to the vast correspondence from Vincent to his beloved brother Theo, Naifeh is able to reconstruct Van Gogh's artistic world from within. Observed in eloquent prose that is as compelling as it is authoritative, Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved enables us to share the artist's journey as he established his own audacious, influential, and widely beloved body of work.

“Advance praise for Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved "Continuing Steven Naifeh's work that began with the landmark biography Van Gogh: The Life, his important new book, Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved, illuminates Van Gogh's remarkable journey to becoming an artist. Richly illustrated, it inspires us to look at him and his art afresh by revealing his deep admiration and affection for the artists who inspired him." --Dr. Chris Stolwijk, general director, RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History, and co-author of Vincent's Choice and Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night "Vincent van Gogh--that great modern original--revered the earlier masters. In this illuminating book, Steven Naifeh juxtaposes individual Van Gogh paintings with works by more traditional artists whose subjects or styles inspired him. Again and again we see--beautifully stated--what makes the modern modern . But we also come to see, paradoxically, a less isolated Van Gogh. He's knit into the community of a great tradition." --Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of de Kooning: An American Master and Francis Bacon: Revelations Praise for Van Gogh: The Life "[A] magisterial new biography." -- The New York Times "Captivating . . . [Naifeh and Smith] bring a booming authorial voice and boundless ingenuity to the task." -- The Wall Street Journal "An enormously compelling psychological study, one I savored long into the night--many nights--and could hardly wait to return to each day." -- The Dallas Morning News "A tour de force of biography . . . containing new revelations about an already much-examined life." -- USA Today "Engrossing." -- The Economist "In every sense monumental." -- The Sunday Times (London)”

“A captivating look inside the mind of Vincent van Gogh . . . Naifeh lucidly traces the painter’s relationship with everything from 17th century works by Rembrandt (who, like Van Gogh, had a penchant for ‘obsessively’ painting himself) to experimenting with the Pointillist dots of Georges Seurat (which, Naifeh writes, ‘freed Van Gogh from the unforgiving linearity of realism’) to his fascination with Japanese woodblock prints. . . . While illuminating the life of one of the world’s most significant artists, this also sheds a broader light on the fascinating nuances of the creative process.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A celebration of one of the world’s greatest artists and the works that inspired him. . . . Handsome . . . with learned explanations, dozens of beautiful reproductions, and an especially moving essay about the author and his husband of 40 years, scholar Gregory White Smith, who died in 2014, and their love of art. An accessible, heartfelt introduction to Van Gogh’s work and life.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved is a profusely illustrated musée imaginaire, representing Vincent’s ideal museum. It is a volume which the artist would have loved to have had by his bedside table. Naifeh, along with his companion the late Gregory White Smith, was the co-author of the 2011 best-selling biography Van Gogh: The Life—so he draws upon great accumulated knowledge.”—The Art Newspaper
 
“Continuing Steven Naifeh’s work that began with the landmark biography Van Gogh: The Life, his important new book, Van Gogh and the Artists He Loved, illuminates Van Gogh’s remarkable journey to becoming an artist. Richly illustrated, it inspires us to look at him and his art afresh by revealing his deep admiration and affection for the artists who inspired him.”—Dr. Chris Stolwijk, general director, RKD–Netherlands Institute for Art History, and co-author of Vincent’s Choice and Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night

“Vincent van Gogh—that great modern original—revered the earlier masters. In this illuminating book, Steven Naifeh juxtaposes individual Van Gogh paintings with works by more traditional artists whose subjects or styles inspired him. Again and again we see—beautifully stated—what makes the modern modern. But we also come to see, paradoxically, a less isolated Van Gogh. He’s knit into the community of a great tradition.”—Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, Pulitzer Prize–winning authors of de Kooning: An American Master and Francis Bacon: Revelations

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Steven Naifeh studied art history at Princeton and did his graduate work at the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University. Together with his late husband and co-author Gregory White Smith, he is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including Van Gogh: The Life . Their biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired the Academy Award-winning film Pollock as well as John Updike's novel Seek My Face . Naifeh, who is also an artist whose works are included in numerous museum collections, has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, USA Today , and People and has appeared twice on 60 Minutes.

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