Van Gogh: Masterpieces від Kröller-Müller Museum

Forty exemplary works spanning the Post-Impressionist's career, from one of the world's foremost Van Gogh collections

The life and work of the most famous artist in the world through a selection of masterpieces.

Forty masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) from the prestigious Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo - which houses one of the greatest Van Gogh collections - document the Dutch painter's entire career, on the eve of the 170th anniversary of his birth.

An extraordinary opportunity to enter into contact with the vision of an artist who managed, through the power of his brushstrokes, to represent his idea of reality and to convey an inner world rich in emotions, as well as a picture of the life of his time, which his work presents together with its profound significance, at times simple, at times troubled and dramatic.

Van Gogh lived a tormented life, marked by failure in all the spheres of existence generally considered to be important: incapable of establishing a family, of supporting himself and of maintaining human relations. Yet, as a painter, he managed to represent even the humblest reality in an incessant path within life, nature and himself, transcending their confines and revealing their meaning.

Through reproductions of the forty paintings and drawings alongside biographical accounts, the volume reconstructs Van Gogh's trajectory along a chronological thread of the periods and places where the painter lived: from his early life in the Netherlands to his years in Paris, Arles, S. Remy and finally Auvers Sur-Oise; from his early passionate and dark landscapes to his depictions of manual laborers such as sowers, potato pickers, weavers, woodcutters, miners and domestic workers.

The book presents forty works by Vincent van Gogh, both paintings and drawings; Van Gogh's works are accompanied by six other highlights from Kröller-Müller Museum's collection, from different periods of time, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Henri Fantin-Latour, Auguste Renoir, Floris Verster, Paul Gauguin, and Pablo Picasso.

About the Authors:

Maria Teresa Benedetti, Italian critic and art historian, author, curator and lecturer. From 2001 to 2004 she served as President of the Italian Section of the A.I.C.A. International Association of Art Critics.
Francesca Villanti is an art historian and exhibition planner.