Author Description

A radical new way of looking at the art of Vincent van Gogh, by exploring his innovative use of the close-up view. Focusing on the last years of the artist's career (1886-1890) an international team of leading scholars examines Van Gogh's radical approach to the close-up and sets it in the context of contemporary and historical references, such as his previously unrecognized use of photography and his fascination with the Old Masters and with Japanese art and culture. One hundred key paintings dating from his arrival in Paris in 1886 to the end of his career, show how Van Gogh experimented with unusual visual angles and the decorative use of colour, cropping, and the flattening of his compositions. In some paintings he zoomed in on a tuft of grass or a single budding iris, while depicting shifting views of a field or garden in others.