Van Gogh Drawings

The collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam contains almost 200 drawings from the years in which Vincent van Gogh woked in the south of France: Arles, Saint-Remy and Auvers-sur-Oise. These are catalogued here in one extensive volume, which forms the largest and final part of the complete catalogue of Van Gogh drawings in the Van Gogh Museum's collections. In February 1888, Van Gogh settled in Arles, where he was extraordinarily productive, but sold no pictures, was in poverty and suffered recurrent nervous crises with hallucinations and depression. In May 1889 he went at his own request into an asylum at St Remy, near Arles, but continued during the year he spent there to produce delirious paintings and drawings. In 1899 Vincent's brother Theo married and in May 1890 Vincent moved to Auvers-sur-Oise to be near him. There followed another tremendous burst of activity, but his spiritual anguish and depression became more acute and on 19 July 1890 he died from the results of a self-inflicted bullet wound. Van Gogh's most important drawings were made in this productive and traumatic period. This catalogue is the result of many years of research and contains detailed discussion of each drawing, full technical data, a comprehensive bibliography, and lists of written sources and exhibitions. Two wide-ranging introductory essays discuss stylistic development in the drawings and Van Gogh's materials, technique and experimentation.