Van Gogh at Work

About this book

Vincent van Gogh (18531890) is often considered to be a genius in a class of his own an exceptional self-taught artist who paid little attention to the art world around him. In reality Van Gogh learned extensively from others exchanged ideas with his contemporaries and often made use of prevailing methods and techniques to hone his skills. This extraordinary book explores the workmanship behind his artistry. The reader follows Van Goghs quest to perfect his skills and the way he adopted various drawing and painting techniques; acquired information about materials; learned about the physical characteristics of canvasses paint paper chalk and other materials; how he approached working on paper and canvas and which factors influenced his working practice. Showing his work alongside that of other artists demonstrates the degree to which he followed examples set by his contemporaries. Van Goghs working methods are explored along with his most famous works addressing topics as the use of a perspective frame color theory the influence of contemporaries and the famous repetitions of a theme as in the Sunflowers and the Bedroom series.