Vincent Van Gogh--The Letters

Since their first publication more than a century ago, Vincent Van Gogh’s letters have gained much acclaim. An invaluable source of information, the letters have also earned broad recognition for their intrinsic qualities: Van Gogh’s personal tone, evocative style and lively language.

The majority of the letters are addressed to Van Gogh’s brother Theo. The earliest dates from September 29, 1872, and the most recent from July 29, 1890, a few days before the artist’s death. After Theo’s death, only six months after his brother’s, his widow Jo van Gogh-Bonger and Vincent’s friend and fellow artist Emile Bernard took over the responsibility of organizing exhibitions of the artist’s work and publishing his correspondence to help foster his reputation.

The most substantial portion of the letters, those sent to Theo, were published in three volumes in the Netherlands as early as 1914. Over the next forty years, as Van Gogh’s reputation began to grow, more and more letters were published. In 1952, his nephew published the first of four volumes of a complete edition: Verzamelde brieven (Collected Letters). This was a milestone in the history of the publication of Van Gogh’s correspondence. The edition, published in Dutch, was translated in its entirety and published in English (1958), French (1960) and German (1965). These books became the essential point of reference for half a century of international Van Gogh research and are probably most important Van Gogh source of the twentieth century.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam produced a new edition of Van Gogh’s complete correspondence in 1990 to mark the centenary of his death. Since then, new information about the chronology of the letters has amassed and 21 letters have been added to the collection.

In response to a challenge to make the collection more accurate and chronological by eminent Van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker, the Van Gogh Museum launched the Van Gogh Letters Project with the Huygens Institute of the Royal Netherlands in 1994. The new publication, Vincent Van Gogh––The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition, along with an integral scholarly web edition, boasts substantial improvements. With six volumes, it contains 902 letters, 819 written by Van Gogh and 83 that he received. In addition to the letters, there are 25 documents, or ‘related manuscripts,’ that consist of a number of loose pages and several unsent letters or drafts.

For the first time ever, every single piece of art referred to by Van Gogh in his correspondence is reproduced with the letters. The newly transcribed text has been retranslated and published in English, Dutch and French. Most importantly, many misreadings and omissions have been corrected. It also contains information about Van Gogh’s family and correspondents, a chronology of his life, an essay on the biographical and historical context of the letters, maps, a glossary of materials and techniques and extensive indexes to help the reader navigate through the whole edition.

Vincent Van Gogh––The Letters is probably one of the most important art historical publications of the decade.

For more information, visit: Vincent Van Gogh Museum--The Letters