Vincent Van Gogh's Letters

A few years ago, while looking for an audio file to discuss art in class, I came across this interesting podcast posted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) where actor Kevin Bacon reads some of the letters Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo.

If you would like to go beyond the podcast and find out more, you will be happy to know there is a website, Vincent Van Gogh: The Letters, resulting from 15 years of research at the Van Gogh Museum and Huygens ING, which contains all Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo, his artist friends Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard, and many others.

The letters are the window to Van Gogh’s gripping life story and exceptional work: his view of drawing and painting, the goals he set for himself, his self-discipline and his idea of art. Through these epistles, we see that he was right when he said “ (…) great things are not accidental” - he really did work hard until he found his individuality and his own style.

And not only was he a great painter, there has also been broad recognition of the intrinsic qualities of his writing: the personal tone, evocative style and lively language. In fact, poet W.H. Auden, wrote “there is scarcely one letter by Van Gogh which I, who am certainly no expert, do not find fascinating”.