The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Although Van Gogh led a mostly solitary life, the letters still offer deep insights into the revolutionary arts scene that was flourishing in Western Europe during his lifetime, especially in France, the Low Countries, and England. Through Van Gogh’s travels and inspirations, the letters reveal Van Gogh’s relationship with the arts. 

Van Gogh’s descriptions of metropolises like London, Paris, The Hague, Amsterdam, and Antwerp give a sense of the artistic vibrancy and innovation that defined the era. His description of Antwerp, a city often overlooked in favor of Paris and Amsterdam, is particularly rich in this regard. He related to Theo his experiences people-watching in the city, noting, “there are always figures in motion there, one sees them in the strangest setting, everything looks fantastic, with interesting contrasts at every turn” (433). Paris was a city at the epicenter of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist movements, but although his residence there coincided with a particularly important stage of his own artistic development, Van Gogh’s letters are unfortunately the sparsest during this time.

There are brief moments, however, where Van Gogh offers glimpses into his interactions with his contemporaries in Paris. In a letter to Horace M. Livens, an English painter, he explained that these interactions were revelatory to him: “In Antwerp I did not even know what the impressionists were, now I have seen them and though not being one of the club yet I have much admired certain impressionists’ pictures—Degas nude figure—Claude Monet landscape” (452).