Van Gogh in England: Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Bailey, Martin. Van Gogh in England: Portrait of the artist as a young man, 1992, London, Lund Humphries in association with The Barbican Art Gallery, paperback, 144 pages, 40 color and 110 b&w illustrations.

Vincent van Gogh spent the years 1873-6 in England. Van Gogh in England: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man examines the influence of the British art scene on Van Gogh's future work as an artist. More broadly, it sets out to show how the experience of Victorian Britain, its people and literature, was to have a formative influence on his personal mission and outlook.

Illustrations include Van Gogh's earliest sketches undertaken before he became an artist, and a representative selection of works from the Royal Academy Summer exhibitions of 1873-6, including many of the paintings that Van Gogh particularly admired. Most of these artists - Hubert Herkomer, Luke Fildes, Thomas Faed - concentrated on the plight of the rural and urban poor, powerful images which became increasingly attractive to Van Gogh as they began to shape his own social conscience.