The new selection from the letters of post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, reveals a human side of one of the most haunted characters in modern Western culture. Edited by Ronald de Leeuw and translated by Arnold Pomerans, this Penguin Classics edition brings together van Gogh's letters which are as self-revealing as few other artists'. Spanning his entire artistic career, this selection illuminates every aspect of the life and work of this complex and tormented man.

The letters candidly and poignantly interlace his religious struggles, his failed search for love, mental illness episodes, and relationship with his brother Theo. Rather than affirming the popular myth of van Gogh as an antisocial paranoiac and martyr to art, they reveal a man with profound emotional and spiritual depths. Above all, these letters provide a poignant personal narrative of artistic evolution and a unique insight into the process of creation.

The edition also includes the sketches that originally illustrated the letters. Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890) was born in the Netherlands. In 1885, he painted his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters, a haunting representation of domestic poverty. A year later, he began studying in Paris, where he met Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Seurat, who were to become major influences on his work. In 1888, he left Paris for the Provencal landscape at Arles, the theme of many of his finest works, including Sunflowers.

If you enjoyed The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, you might also be interested in 100 Artists' Manifestos, available in Penguin Classics. "If it was ever in doubt that van Gogh's letters belong alongside those great classic self-revelations of art, this outstanding new edition dispels it."

Pages: 560, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm