NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The definitive biography for decades to come.” - Leo Jansen, curator, the Van Gogh Museum, and co-editor of Vincent van Gogh: The Complete Letters
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who galvanized readers with their Pulitzer Prize - winning biography of Jackson Pollock, have written another tour de force - an exquisitely detailed, compellingly readable portrait of Vincent van Gogh. Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials to bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist: his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; and his move to Provence, where he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art. The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Gogh’s inner world: his erratic and tumultuous romantic life; his bouts of depression and mental illness; and the cloudy circumstances surrounding his death at the age of thirty-seven.
Though countless books have been written about Van Gogh, no serious, ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than seventy years. Naifeh and Smith have re-created Van Gogh’s life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • The Wall Street Journal • San Francisco Chronicle • NPR • The Economist • Newsday • BookReporter
In their magisterial new biography, Van Gogh: The Life, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith provide a guided tour through the personal world and work of that Dutch painter, shining a bright light on the evolution of his art… . What [the authors] capture so powerfully is Van Gogh’s extraordinary will to learn, to persevere against the odds.
- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Brilliant… Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith are the big-game hunters of modern art history… . [Van Gogh] rushes along on a tide of research… . At once a model of scholarship and an emotive, pacy chunk of hagiography.
- Martin Herbert, The Daily Telegraph (London)