Van Gogh by keith Wheldon 1st edition 1989

Van gogh by keith wheldon 1st edition 1989 van gogh is a painter renowned today for his tragic life and for the high prices his works now fetch at auction the tragedy is all the greater as he sold almost none of his paintings during his lifetime the nineteenth century public was not ready for his bold, uncompromising brushstrokes and his use of pure intense colour although he once said that he was expressing the 'terrible human emotions with the colours red and green, his paintings are far more than the unmediated outpourings of a tortured psyche art historian keith wheldon takes a fresh look at van gogh's work, and demonstrates that many factors including his middle class background and fear of women, influenced both his style and his choice of subject van gogh's earliest works date from the 1880s when he painted local dutch weavers and peasants in sombre earth tones it was only later, particularly when he was working in the brilliant sunshine of arles in the south of france, that he developed the colourful palette of such familiar images as the sunflowers, the starry night and van gogh's room following several spells in an asylum, his artistic vision darkened and his style be came increasingly agitated, culminating in crows over a wheatfield, the last painting before his suicide for this new large format book, 120 of van gogh's best loved works and many fasci nating lesser known paintings have been chosen each is reproduced in full colour, described in detail and placed in the context of van gogh's whole oeuvre van gogh brings fresh insight into one of the world's most popular but misunderstood painters, and this is a book that will continue to give pleasure to art lovers and historians for years to come keith wheldon was educated at the univer sities of east anglia and sussex, and at the courtauld institute of art he has written and lectured on a wide range of nineteenth and twentieth century subjects and contributed to a number of films, exhibitions, and television programmes he is involved with research on european symbolism, and is making a special study of renoir's later work he also writes on postwar and contemporary art he is presently senior lecturer in art history at oxford polytechnic condition very good inscriptions to previous owner hardcover published in 1989 by bison books ltd i s b n : 0 86124 522 9 length 192 pages collection in forest town or can be couriered at buyers expense