Vincent van Gogh - Lot with 7 books - 2007-2021

1.Van Gogh Up Close, Yale, Edited by Cornelia Homburg, 2012, 288 pages in English, Hardback

Van Gogh: Up Close, edited by Cornelia Homburg and published by Yale University Press in 2012, is a beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogue examining Vincent van Gogh’s innovative use of the close-up view. The book focuses particularly on the final years of his career, from his arrival in Paris in 1886 until his death in 1890. It presents around 100 key paintings and explores how Van Gogh experimented with unusual viewpoints, cropping, flattened compositions, decorative colour and close observation of nature.

The scholarly essays also examine Van Gogh’s fascination with Japanese art, the Old Masters and photography, challenging the perception that his work was simply spontaneous or instinctive. The catalogue accompanied major exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada in 2012.

The hardback edition (ISBN 9780300181296) is 288 pages in the bibliographic record, although some commercial listings count 306 pages including preliminary material.

2.Van Gogh & Japan Yale, 2018, 200 pages in English, Hardback

Published in 2018 by the Van Gogh Museum, Hokkaido Shimbun Press and Mercatorfonds, and distributed in English by Yale University Press, Van Gogh & Japan explores the profound influence of Japanese art on Vincent van Gogh’s artistic development. The book accompanies the major international exhibition held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2018, following exhibitions in Sapporo, Tokyo and Kyoto.

The publication examines Van Gogh’s fascination with Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, which he encountered in Paris and collected enthusiastically. Their vivid colours, unconventional compositions, flattened perspectives, close-up views and decorative qualities profoundly influenced his own paintings and drawings. The essays also explore Van Gogh’s idealised vision of Japan and how he attempted to incorporate Japanese aesthetics into his artistic identity, particularly during his years in Arles.

The book contains numerous high-quality reproductions of Van Gogh’s works alongside Japanese prints that inspired him, making it both a scholarly reference and an attractive art book.
Year: 2018
Pages: 200
Language: English
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780300233261

3.VanGogh Dessins et aquarelles, Sjraar van Heugten, 2007, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2 volume set with slipcase, 384 pages in French, Hardback

Van Gogh – Dessins et aquarelles — Sjraar van Heugten
This two-volume French-language boxed set, published by Citadelles & Mazenod in 2007, brings together an extensive presentation of Vincent van Gogh’s graphic work. The set comprises two richly illustrated volumes of approximately 192 pages each, presented in an attractive slipcase, with a combined weight of about 3.5 kg.

The books follow Van Gogh’s development as a draughtsman from his early Dutch period and the sombre landscapes and rural subjects of the Borinage and Nuenen, through his discovery of Parisian artistic life, to the increasingly expressive works created in Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise. Particular attention is given to his pencil and pen drawings, reed-pen studies, watercolours and gouaches. The authors demonstrate that drawing was not merely preparatory for Van Gogh’s paintings: it was an independent and highly innovative means of artistic expression. His energetic lines, expressive marks and use of colour reveal the close relationship between his graphic and painted work.
Year: 2007
Format: 2 hardback volumes in slipcase
Language: French
Pages: 192 + 192 (approximately 384 pages)
ISBN: 978-2-85088-234-0

Les peintures magistrales de Van Gogh, Belinda
Thomson, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2006, 190 pages in French, Hardback, Euro 50

Les peintures magistrales de Van Gogh — Belinda Thomson

Published by Citadelles & Mazenod in 2006, this richly illustrated French-language monograph offers an accessible yet scholarly examination of Vincent van Gogh’s painting career. Thomson structures the book around the major periods of Van Gogh’s artistic development, tracing his journey from his early work in the Netherlands through Antwerp and Paris to the final years in Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise. The selection includes many of his most celebrated paintings, alongside lesser-known works, drawn largely from the collections of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The author explores the evolution of his technique, colour, brushwork and artistic objectives, placing the paintings within the intellectual and cultural context of his short but extraordinary career. Van Gogh’s correspondence with his family and friends provides an important thread throughout the study, revealing his ideas and ambitions. The book is particularly attractive for its high-quality reproductions and clear presentation.

4.Van Gogh and the Olive Groves, Nienke Bakker and Nicole R Myers, Yale, 2021, 216 pages in English, Hardback

Van Gogh and the Olive Groves — Nienke Bakker & Nicole R. Myers

Van Gogh and the Olive Groves is a major scholarly exhibition catalogue devoted to one of Vincent van Gogh’s most important bodies of work: the fifteen paintings of olive trees he created at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence between June and December 1889. The book brings these works together for the first time and examines their artistic, technical and deeply personal significance. Van Gogh repeatedly returned to the olive groves, painting them in different seasons and at different times of day as he explored the expressive possibilities of colour, line, movement and light. The essays also consider the spiritual and religious associations that the olive tree held for him and its importance within his final years in Provence. Particularly valuable are the results of a three-year conservation-science project examining all fifteen paintings, revealing new information about pigments, materials, painting techniques and chronology. The richly illustrated volume is therefore both an attractive art book and an important reference for Van Gogh collectors and enthusiasts.
Publication: 2021 (often associated with the 2022 exhibition)
Pages: 216
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780300260076

5.Van Gogh Cezanne Matisse Hodler The Hahnloser collection, Hirmer, 2020, 286 pages in English, Hardback

Van Gogh, Cézanne, Matisse, Hodler: The Hahnloser Collection
Published by Hirmer in 2020, this handsome English-language exhibition catalogue presents the remarkable collection assembled by Swiss collectors Arthur and Hedy Hahnloser-Bühler at Villa Flora in Winterthur between 1905 and 1935. The collection grew through the couple’s close friendships and exchanges with leading artists of the period and became an exceptional survey of French and Swiss modernism.

The catalogue features around 120 major works, with artists including Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Ferdinand Hodler, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Édouard Vuillard, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. It not only reproduces the artworks but also explores the relationships between the Hahnlosers and the artists, their collecting philosophy, and the cultural significance of Villa Flora. The essays provide valuable insight into the artistic environment of the early twentieth century and the collectors’ remarkable ability to recognise important modernist developments.
Publication: 2020
Language: English
Format: Hardback
Pages: 286–288
Illustrations: 180 colour illustrations
ISBN: 978-3-7774-3438-4

6.Van Gogh Into the Undergrowth,2016, 160 pages in English, Hardback

Van Gogh: Into the Undergrowth
Published in 2016 by D Giles Ltd in association with the Cincinnati Art Museum, Van Gogh: Into the Undergrowth explores Van Gogh’s fascination with woodland landscapes, or sous-bois. The catalogue centres on Undergrowth with Two Figures, a remarkable panoramic painting completed at Auvers-sur-Oise in June 1890, during the final weeks of the artist’s life. The work had recently been restored and became the principal focus of the Cincinnati exhibition.

The book places Van Gogh’s woodland paintings within the broader nineteenth-century landscape tradition, comparing his approach with artists including Monet, Gauguin, Pissarro, Renoir, Corot and Cézanne. Essays examine his relationship with nature, the Barbizon and Impressionist traditions, and his distinctive use of colour, vigorous brushwork and composition to convey the atmosphere and vitality of the forest. The catalogue includes 25 artworks and 86 colour illustrations, together with substantial new research.
Publication: 2016
Pages: 160
Language: English
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781907804847