"Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), could be considered as one of the more romantic figures among nineteenth-century artists." "His highly personal, brilliant, and graphic style may lack the virtuosity of many of his contemporaries but its power to arrest the viewer is universally acknowledged.". "Van Gogh stands as one of the most popular artists of all times and his tragic life has spurned a plethora of publications. Van Gogh, Life and Works is a wonderful introduction into van Gogh's world; it traces his beginnings - a restless young man, who variously worked as a picture dealer, a book dealer and trainee for the Church before finally choosing to become a painter. Using fifty of van Gogh's drawings and paintings, author Linda Whiteley charts his development from his early heart-felt but bleak drawings of peasants to his colour-filled canvases executed in the south of France that have become benchmarks for twentieth-century art."--BOOK JACKET.