Van Gogh: 1853-1890, Vision and Reality (Basic Art)

This beautiful book gives a great introduction and overview of the artist and their work/life. Great quality illustrations and text. Highly recommend.

This is part of a fine series of art books. The paintings are beautifully reproduced and the book is a pleasure to read.

Love Vincent Van Gogh. Great informative colourful book full of some of his great paintings! Thank you :-)

Nice overview of his work and life. A good size, fast delivery and good conditions. It makes you search for more of his life, since not all works are here but it contains the main ones. I like the quotes by him, on each page. What are misunderstood genius.

There is still the debate about Van Gogh's health, was it epilepsy, bipolar disorder or episodes brought on by absinthe. There is still the stigma of mental illness in our society, so to go with epilepsy (as thought by the unqualified doctor all that time ago), seems to be the correct diagnosis for some. The author of this book sides with the epilepsy theory, which might not agree with everyone's beliefs. But what matters is Van Gogh's artwork, and that would be what he'd have wanted to be remembered by. Like all of Taschen's 'Basic Art' series, the book is very interesting and well illustrated.

As a major Van Gogh lover, I can confirm I am OBSESSED.

Brilliant book, great illustrations, but...not the complete works by any means. The complete book is pretty huge! You will get a very good overview of Vincents' work from this one. Probably all you need.

Lovely book. Just what I wanted. Quality photos and text. The information and detail about Van Gogh' s life and paintings is great.

👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

Gostei muito, o livro é lindo! Eu adoro o Van Gogh, pra mim é significativo.

Fast delivery! Super love this!

Got this for my girlfriend as she’s a very big art fan. She loves the book. Great quality no complaints.

Probably everyone has a favorite Vincent Van Gogh painting. We have a hand-painted reproduction of "Starry Night" in our living room. The original was painted in 1889, the year before the troubled artist's death. There are a lot of paintings from which to pick a favorite, as Van Gogh has some 200 extant works. This book is an Introduction to Vincent, so it does not have pictures of his every drawing and painting. But there's still a lot of illustrations. I counted 27 full-page photos of his works, with 44 smaller photos and one 2-page spread of the 1887 "Four Cut Sunflowers". This close-up makes you feel like you can see him make the bold brush-strokes. There are also 13 supporting photos , such as the studio portrait of Vincent when he was 13 years old. The book presents Van Gogh and his paintings in chronological order and covers what is happening in his life as well as discussing the paintings themselves. I knocked half a star off in my rating due to a few lapses into what I call "art-speak". From Chapter 2, "Apprenticeship Years in Paris", a paragraph on the painting "Still Life with Mackerels, Lemons and Tomatoes": "The inexplicable nature of the interrelationship of space, the blurred borders between table, tomatoes and jug, one behind the other, point towards the influence of Japanese prints, in which the spatial continuum is at odds with the ornamental surface." Fortunately, the text is mostly more accessible to the non-art historian or art critic. And there is a lot of interesting stuff to read about how and why he painted. Vincent wasn't a slap-dash painter. He studied color theory and symbolism. Here's Vincent's own description of the 1888 painting, "The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night": "A gigantic yellow lamp lights up the terrace, the house fronts and the pavement, and casts out its light onto the street cobbles, which take on a pink violet colouring. The house façades in the street, under a blue starry sky, are dark blue or violet, in front a green tree. There you have it – a night painting without having used the colour black." Trivia: No matter how you pronounce "van Gogh", someone will think you're saying it wrong. That's because it's generally pronounced differently in different countries. To confuse everybody, we can try to approximate the Dutch pronunciation: v = a cross between an f and a v an = ahwn g = almost an h, half-swallow an h in the back of the throat ogh = rhymes with the Scottish LOCH Put it together: vin-sent-fawn-hoch! This is the 2nd book I've purchased in the Taschen "Basic Art Series 2.0". The first was on Vermeer, Vermeer (Basic Art Series 2.0) , which was excellent. The series was first published in 1986 and now has almost 200 titles. The 2.0 refers to the 2nd editions, rolled out for the series' 30th anniversary. I enjoyed this book a lot, 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Which artist in the series shall I get next?! Happy Reader