Van Gogh

The Life

By: Steven Naifeh, Gregory White Smith

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith galvanized audiences with their astonishing Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, a book acclaimed for its miraculous research and overwhelming narrative power. Now Naifeh and Smith have written another tour de force - an exquisitely detailed, compelling, and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of creative genius Vincent van Gogh.

Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials. While drawing liberally from the artist's famously eloquent letters, they have also delved into hundreds of unpublished family correspondences, illuminating with poignancy the wanderings of Van Gogh's troubled, restless soul. Naifeh and Smith bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist - his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; his impetus for turning to brush and canvas; and his move to Provence, where in a brief burst of incandescent productivity he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art.

The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Gogh's inner world: his deep immersion in literature and art; his erratic and tumultuous romantic life; and his bouts of depression and mental illness.

Though countless books have been written about Van Gogh, and though the broad outlines of his tragedy have long inhabited popular culture, no serious, ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than 70 years. Naifeh and Smith have re-created Van Gogh's life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius whose signature images of sunflowers and starry nights have won a permanent place in the human imagination.

©2011 Woodward/White, LLC (P)2019 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A tour de force . . . an enormous achievement . . . [A] sweepingly authoritative, astonishingly textured book." (Los Angeles Times)

Fascinating!

Bits may be dry or not as interesting when not knowing specific artists that he knew or influenced him. But they are worth Goggling to learn more.
whether temporal lobe epilepsy (that is a thing still,, but not necessarily his issue) he did obviously have depression and some irrational mental issues.. Which syphilis could have exacerbated. He was a human male with a libido.
All the correspondence between him and his family really gives insight and factual details of his life.
Early on in the book before you see him descend into mental health with physical issues you feel like like yelling at him from the sidelines. Will you think about what you are doing or what others are saying!
He proves mental concerns aren't something you brush off and nove on.
Thankfully he was a prolific painter too. That he studied so many genres, methods, and so forth. His black and white stage. No colors! Passive-aggressively sent a letter to Theo with a wheelbarrow full of manure sketch. That made me chortle! He thus gives us so many different kinds of art and subjects. From people - the peasant farmers and miners, to portraits, to scenery. Both realistic as well as Impressionism.
I can relate and empathize with his desire for family and connections.
Lastly, excellent research on more accurate conclusions about his death. We will never know for sure, but suicide unlikely.
Sad though how insanity or whatever affected previous people in his family tree as well as siblings too.
Shows we all have lives and whether we are remembered or not is a question for time. He actually was able to read praise for his work, even if he didn't quite feel he deserved it. Age 37 he left us but if you read this his desire to be a minister and help others was there, even if he couldn't go about it well. Ie, living on a dirt floor when he didn't need to and other stories before painting he definitely had a full life of experiences!

Compelling and detailed (and long!)

The story drew me in and held me spellbound throughout - couldn’t put this down . The book is written in great detail and information supported by letters/correspondence, which was interesting but also lead to a redundancy - likely more noticeable in audio format.
The author made the courageous and challenging effort to get into the tormented mind of Vincent from the inner view, the family response and the response from the public and strangers. In this valiant attempt though, I sensed a bias from the author that flip flopped; Vincent was portrayed as obsessive, persistent, manipulative and aggressive toward those close to him - clearly mentally unstable and family portrayed as victim. Yet when describing reaction of strangers toward similar behavior he was portrayed more sympathetically as a victim being misjudged by society. A flip flop bias played out by most of us in todays world.
Vincent remains a fantastic mystery. Can’t believe after reading 40+ hours of this life story, I left wanting to know more.

Beyond Profound

The detailed accounts of the life of Vincent Van Gogh is amazing. The detailed compilation of explicit history is fascinating & remarkable. So much gratitude to the authors for allowing us to know the truth of the life of Vincent Van Gogh without romantic myths.

Brilliant Bigraphy

I’ve always been a VG fan, and used to own the complete letters of VG book. But they were difficult to read because I was missing the context of what VG was doing at the time of writing them. This book helped to put his works and thoughts into perspective and context. I loved how long this book was and how much detail it went into. I loved learning about the Salon system and the advent of Impressionism. What a sad life VG had. But good that he got a glimpse of impending success even though he was still plagued with imposter syndrome. Going to leave it a year. And listen to it again. The narration was great too.

Absolutely Captivating

This book is a must read for art lovers, especially Van Gogh fans. It is long but well worth the listen.

Best biography and telling of Van Gogh

If you are a fan of Van Gogh, you will love this book. It’s long but goes by very quickly as it’s so interesting. I definitely recommend. The narration was perfect and has an easy voice.

Exhaustive and Exhausting

I imagine this has to be the definitive biography of Vincent Van Gogh. The research is extensive and covers in detail every phase of Van Gogh's life. IIRC over 600 of Van Gogh's letters were saved and if feels as if the author used every single one writing this book. If only 300 letters were saved, the book would probably be only 22 hours long instead of 45 hours. Everything you'd want to know about VVG is in here.

I came to this book interested a little in his life but mostly to hear about his painting career and perhaps an analysis of his paintings. However, since his career started so late in his life, there is a lot of material to get through before that. This is where the book was a bit exhausting for me. I only kept going because I knew eventually the author would get to the paintings. if it wasn't for that, I would have quit several times along the way. I just didn't need to know so much detail about the many career failures in VVG's life before he decided to take up pencil and brush full time.

When the book did get to the final years of VVG's, the author covers his paintings quite well. I came to a better understanding of VVG's art and the cultural context in which he was painting. Despite the slog, that part of the book was worth listening to. The book also clarifies and busts a few of the myths around VVG such as why he cut off part of his ear and the manner of his death.

Before listening to this biography, I didn't know much about VVG's life outside of his paintings. After listening, my impression is that he was a malignant narcissist with delusional and paranoid tendencies and zero empathy for others. In other words, he was an a**hole who put his family through hell. I found out later in the book that some of his mental issues were hereditary. That explains some of his behavior, but he still would not be a person you'd want to befriend or hang around with. That is something I was not expecting when starting the book.

A very ambitious review of the man behind the canvas.

What I thought I knew from my years as a student in high school and college, doesn’t even make up a foot note.
These authors, and the narrator really brought Van Gogh alive here.

They take us from his childhood to his death, and then some more!
I’m glad I heard about this audio book.

Thank you!

Compelling biography, compellingly read!

Stays close to the evidence, especially as revealed in Van Gogh’s letters - but filled out and corroborated by other sources, where available.

A sad but wonderful story of an immortal painter who, partly because of his family’s and nation’s culture and partly because of his own uncompromising temperament, lived a life of frustration and perceived failure.

The postscript makes a compelling case that Van Gogh did not commit suicide, but, once he was accidentally shot, did not try to prolong his life, either. In particular, he protected the young boy or boys who shot him accidentally.

A final act of selflessness.

Yet his vision and vitality live on in his paintings.

This book gives the big picture as well as convincing details. Well worth the many hours of listening!!

historical accuracy

this was a GREAT listen! Good story telling. Vincent had a complex and tragic life with a compelling story of physical and mental and emotional illness alongside absolute genius struggling to get out. I believe the conclusion in the epilog to be accurate.