When depicting the paintings themselves, she rationalises his statement brushstrokes into her even pen lines. Stok does a credible job with Vincent’s images, rendering them effectively into her trademark ligne clair cartoons. There are challenges to a project like this: how do you represent the artist’s distinctive imagery and style, or his inner world and creative process. Without this support, who knows how it would have gone for Vincent? He probably wouldn’t be the subject of any books. So he must have seen the appeal of supporting his demanding brother from a distance! Theo is a connoiseur and art dealer, so there is some quid pro quo – Vincent sends him paintings, and Theo provides helpful feedback. Fellow painter Gauguin struggles with him, and is poignantly less committed to their friendship. Theo van Gogh, aiding his troubled brother by sending money month after month, comes across as a man of immense generosity and patience, but has his own life – just married and planning a family.
She portrays him as a committed, energetic, but ultimately exasperating man. If the current project seems a jump from there, it’s a manageable one.Īvoiding a whistle-stop chronology, she focusses on a key period, when Vincent relocated to the inspiring landscapes of Southern France. This is her first English publication, but she’s admired in her homeland – she won the 2009 Stripschapprijs prize for her highly personal and autobiographical body of work.
Vincent is written and drawn by fellow Dutch artist Barbara Stok. Van Gogh is an emblem of the tortured artist – the other side of the coin from charismatic lover and bon viveur Picasso, subject of the next volume. A prime subject then to kick-off a series of graphic biographies of Art Masters. His personal struggles, resulting in the almost fatal severed ear, are equally famous. The astounding prices of his paintings today are in sharp contrast to their reception in his lifetime, when he sold virtually nothing.
Few modern painters are as famous as Vincent van Gogh – his landscapes and sunflower images are iconic, and his trademark brushstrokes instantly recognisable.
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