Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence

"I agree. It’s absolutely fascinating. He was driven, driven, driven. Van Gogh was driving his brother Theo mad in Paris. So Theo says, ‘I’ll give you some money to go down to the south of France.’ Vincent wants to be like the Pre-Raphaelites, so he buys 12 chairs for his disciples, and invites them down to Arles. Only Gauguin comes. So there are two of them on 12 chairs. Van Gogh gets so excited about Gauguin coming that he paints his famous sunflower paintings— Fourteen Sunflowers and Fifteen Sunflowers —and hangs them in Gauguin’s bedroom as a huge welcoming bouquet. It’s so very, very touching. Martin Bailey is the most amazing van Gogh scholar. This book has everything you might want to know about that period in his life that produced all those paintings that everyone adores: the orchards, the sower etc. It’s a great book."