Raven H. answered • 09/09/16
Tutor
New to Wyzant
Professional Educator and Owner of her Own Tutoring Business
As I am sure you know, the book is a biography of Vincent Van Gogh, the famous painter. The book is organized by where he lived at the time and describes his inspiration for many of his famous paintings. It also touches a lot on the relationship between Vincent and his brother, Theo. This is because the source for most of the information in the book came from letters between these two men.
The important thing we learn about him and his work is that he enjoyed the beauty in reality, especially real people. he didn;t seek out the most beautiful people to paint. he found beauty in the normal which we can link to today with the movement towards having models that are an average size and who aren't airbrushed.
I feel the story tells a tale of a misfit out of his time. of course, many believed him to be crazy, and he didn;t have many real friends or long term relationships. But I think it's more that his different way of seeing the world was no accepted in his time. He was out of place, and I would think that would be a large theme; all these people around him all the time but none getting that close. Alone in a crowd.
It seems that he has the relationship of an artist with everything and everyone. He looks at everything as art, as a subject of a painting and not as a friend or a wife or anything.
The important thing we learn about him and his work is that he enjoyed the beauty in reality, especially real people. he didn;t seek out the most beautiful people to paint. he found beauty in the normal which we can link to today with the movement towards having models that are an average size and who aren't airbrushed.
I feel the story tells a tale of a misfit out of his time. of course, many believed him to be crazy, and he didn;t have many real friends or long term relationships. But I think it's more that his different way of seeing the world was no accepted in his time. He was out of place, and I would think that would be a large theme; all these people around him all the time but none getting that close. Alone in a crowd.
It seems that he has the relationship of an artist with everything and everyone. He looks at everything as art, as a subject of a painting and not as a friend or a wife or anything.
If you ever need any more help, know that I do offer online lessons. I hope this helps!
