Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

I spent part of the Thankfully Reading Weekend immersed in the lives of the Van Gogh brothers, Vincent and Theo. The two were much alike; they also had many differences. This book provides an ideal venue for doing a compare/contrast with the two.

Both brothers suffered greatly from poor health and both were dead before forty. Both were part of the art world, Vincent as an artist and Theo as an art seller. Neither had much success with women; both fell in love many times but their love was not reciprocated. Vincent was the more social, but he also, paradoxically, was the one who was more difficult to get along with.

It was a sad story, of course, but I'm terribly glad I read it.

I enjoyed reading this and definitely felt like I learned a fair amount about the Van Gogh brothers. The style is interesting–the simplistic writing style gives this almost a fairy tale vibe (although uhh it's obviously one of the sad fairy tales). I wonder how much of this is from Heiligman trying not to speculate excessively about what the lived experience of Vincent and Theo's respective mental illnesses was? It seems a bit...detached, despite being based so heavily on their letters and their intense bond? I can't quite put my finger on it. Still: it definitely fleshes out this story beyond the kind of bare bones “omg he cut his ear off” that most Americans know.

PS I read this on Kindle and then was like, oh this was a dumb choice because presumably there are some color reproductions in here...but also whatever I'll look at the paintings on Wikipedia.