« Là - revenu ici je me suis remis au travail - le pinceau pourtant me tombant presque des mains et - sachant bien ce que je voulais j'ai encore depuis peint trois grandes toiles. Ce sont d'immenses étendues de blés sous des ciels troublés et je ne me suis pas gêné pour chercher à exprimer de la tristesse, de la solitude extrême. Vous verrez cela j'espère sous peu - car j'espère vous les apporter à Paris le plus tôt possible puisque je croirais presque que ces toiles vous diront ce que je ne sais dire en paroles, ce que je vois de sain et de fortifi ant dans la campagne. » Ouvrage en coédition avec le Musée d'Orsay.
Cet autoportrait devenu iconique est un des fleurons de la collection du musée d'Orsay. Vincent van Gogh s'est peint pas moins de quarante fois, mais c'est ce portrait qui a figé à jamais son visage. Cet ouvrage propose un regard neuf sur cette oeuvre majeure et nous propose de partir à la découverte des autoportraits de Van Gogh desquels jaillit l'âme du peintre.
A landmark publication tracing the final months of Gogh's life.
Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Final Months offers a unique and impressive overview of the paintings and drawings that Vincent van Gogh created during the last seventy days of his life. He produced no fewer than seventy-four paintings and over thirty drawings in the course of the intense, productive period leading up to his self-inflicted death on 29 July 1890. While the Portrait of Dr Gachet, The Church at Auvers and Wheatfield with Crows are numbered among his greatest masterpieces, this part of his oeuvre is otherwise less known - unfairly so - than the sunny landscapes he painted in the south of France.
The book follows the artist from his arrival in Auvers-Sur-Oise, where he set to work full of hope and with fresh ambitions, through to his final weeks. Essays by leading Van Gogh specialists highlight his artistic ambitions and mental state during this final phase; his exploration of the Auvers landscape; the flower still-lifes, portraits and panoramic landscapes he painted there; the role played by his drawings; and his artistic reputation at the time of his death and in the years immediately afterwards. In addition to all the Auvers paintings, the book is richly illustrated with drawings, sketches, historical photographs and detailed maps of the places Van Gogh worked. Also featured are related works by contemporaries and predecessors whom he admired.
