It was heartbreaking, though, as he, as well as Vincent's friends and acquaintances, continuously encouraged him for years upon years, but always cruelly regretting that, alas, they could not yet exhibit any of his work. Vincent's brother Theo was astonishingly, almost mind-blowingly supportive. I referred frequently to online images of Van Gogh's drawings and paints as they were mentioned in the narrative. This book echoes some of the same themes, including the fine line between genius and madness and an artist's willingness to starve themselves or live in squalor in pursuit of their craft. When I placed this book on my TBR I had no particular interest in Van Gogh, but I had just read the author's breathtaking and unforgettable biographical fiction book, The Agony and the Ecstasy, about Michelangelo. Becoming malnourished, weak and physically and mentally ill while chasing his passion but never realizing success would prove to be recurring circumstances for the rest of his life. Accepting a ministerial position in an impoverished Belgian coal mining community, he was inspired by the rough and downtrodden faces surrounding him, and he eschewed his comfortable lodgings, nearly starving himself while giving most of his allowance to the locals he asked to model for him as he made his first forays into crude drawing. He was expected to go into the art business as well but grew frustrated by having to sell terrible art to wealthy clients who couldn't discern the difference between talent and rubbish. No other novel of a great man’s life has so fascinated the American public for generations.Vincent Van Gogh was the son of a clergyman, though his extended family were quite prosperous art dealers. Finally, it shows us Van Gogh driven mad, tragic, and triumphant at once. The novel takes us from his desperate days in a coal mine in southern Belgium to his dazzling years in the south of France, where he knew the most brilliant artists (and the most depraved whores). Here is his tempestuous story: his dramatic life, his fevered loves for both the highest-born women and the lowest prostitutes, and his paintings-for which he was damned before being proclaimed a genius.
The most famous of all of Stone’s novels, it is the story of Vincent Van Gogh-brilliant painter, passionate lover, and alleged madman. Since its initial publication in 1934, Irving Stone’s Lust for Life has been a critical success, a multimillion-copy bestseller, and the basis for an Academy Award-winning movie. The classic, bestselling biographical novel of Vincent Van Gogh
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