Paul Gauguin is one of my favorite painters (and the inspiration for the name of my blog). I love his compositional style, the colors he used and the primitive quality of many of his paintings. So I was pleased to discover the book The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Provence by Martin Gayford, and read it last month.For a nine-week period during the last year of Vincent Van Gogh’s life, Gauguin and Van Gogh shared a house in Arles, France. Their time together culminated in Van Gogh's famous ear-cutting incident. The author reconstructs their experience through the artists' correspondence, “the formal analysis and comparison of the paintings they created during this period, and through newspapers that place the work in the context of the contemporary art world, popular literature, and current events.”
Although the writing is somewhat dry at times, I found it a fascinating read overall.
5 comments:
Gayford gives endless detail of what they ate for breakfast, and how VVG walked out the front door and turned left now and then left again to walk down the street. You mean that kind of "dry"?
Har, har. I loved the book, and reviewed it at my blog. It provides more than ample introduction to either great artist.
There was an exhibit at the ART Institue -I think- in Chicago it was Fabulous!! it even had a full size recreation of the rooms they lived in and many of the actual paintings that they worked on during their time together- My daughter & I got all choked up at the end because we Love Van Gogh and got to see Starry Night in person - a moment I will never forget!!!
Hello Sharon... what a lovely place to stumble across.. I was drawn by the name of your blog from Willow Manor :)
I saw the Yellow House on 4OD the other day... :)
Best wishes from Scotland
Rima
Gaugin is one of my favorites, too. This looks like a book I would enjoy. Thanks for the suggestion, Sharon! :)
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