“I have a more or less irresistible passion for books, and the constant need to improve my mind, to study, if you like, just as I need to eat my daily bread…”
letter to Brother Theo, 1880
A few years ago to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Van Gogh’s birth Radio Netherlands broadcast a program entitled “Vincent’s Bookshelf” by David Swatling.
In Vincent Van Gogh’s letters there are almost 800 literary references to work by more than 150 authors.
Balzac, Poe, Goethe, Bronte, Dickens are among the vast array of authors Van Gogh read.
One of Van Gogh’s earliest paintings is a Still Life of two books, a copy of a book by Emile Zola’s being dwarfed by a Bible.
and in various versions of the portrait called The Arlesienne one can get a peak of Van Gogh’s literary influences. One version includes two books: Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.