New Book on Van Gogh and Gauguin's Provençal Years

A new publication by Gallimard, authored by Douglas W. Druick and Peter Kort Zegers, examines the Provençal years of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. The book draws on the artists' extensive correspondence, offering a factual account that counters popular mythologization. It revisits the 2001 exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and the 2002 exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The narrative details their meeting in Paris in late 1887, their shared desire to move beyond Impressionism, and their belief that art should be created away from modern cities. Gauguin settled in Brittany, while van Gogh moved to Arles in early 1888. With support from his brother Theo, a picture dealer, van Gogh persuaded Gauguin to join him to establish the "Studio of the South." Through new motifs and approaches to color and pictorial space, their exchange of ideas changed the course of painting history.