"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

08 December 2009

van Gogh's Letters: An Exhibition


"Even before he dedicated himself to painting, van Gogh's earliest dispatches, penned in Dutch, reveal the vision and intensity that in time would shape his art. When he turned to painting as a profession, the letters took on an even greater primacy, filled now with sketches (or croquis) that are reproduced here to scale. Usually inscribed in the same ink as his prose, they shared its striking immediacy. And in them, as the artist weds image to text to distill the essence of a painting or theme that preoccupied him, we glimpse both his burning ambition and burgeoning theories about modern art. Some of the letter-sketches have also become invaluable as records of paintings that have not survived."

Read the rest here.

The exhibition's site is here.

The six volumes are ... here.

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