Vincent Van Gogh’s reading list
“Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.” – Vincent Van Gogh
Although he has been painted as the proverbial tortured genius who rued a life of little success, Vincent Van Gogh is far from the pitiable figure that a certain arc of history assumes. He was never unaware of the beauty around him – how can you paint as he did without that being the case – and he often teetered on the brink of reverence enough to know that his work was certainly of worth beyond the catharsis it gave him.
Alas, even so, he delved into art for the joy it afforded him, as his quote on literature decrees: “Reading books is like looking at paintings: without doubting, without hesitating, with self-assurance, one must find beautiful that which is beautiful.” And so he read quite fervently throughout his life.
However, he was choosey about what books he picked up. Much like his paintings, the literature of his life reflected his circumstances. At lowly moments when the wealth of his family was a world away as he explored Europe, he read the likes of Charles Dickens with his tales of hardships and the humility of reality transfigured through craft to which he could relate as a painter sketching the likes of ‘The Potato Eaters’. During spells, when he considered a future with the church, he delved into philosophical texts. And throughout, he favoured the stirring, poetic prose of Émile Zola.
It would seem that these connections allowed him to embrace the prose with a greater fondness, and this, in turn, inspired him to paint with vigour. As he once said: “It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
The list below is compiled by the Van Gogh Museum based on the texts in his possession and those he waxed lyrical about in his frequent letters to his brother, Theo. After all, books were frequently the focus of his works, including; ‘Piles of French Novels’, ‘Old Man Reading’ and many others.
Vincent Van Gogh’s reading list:
- The Bible
- L’amour by Jules Michelet
- Tartarin de Tarascon by Alphonse Daudet
- The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats
- Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
- The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- What the Moon Saw by Hans Christian Andersen
- The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis,
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Chérie by Edmond de Goncourt
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
- Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant
- Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti
- Candide by Voltaire
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- King Lear by William Shakespeare
- Hard Times by Charles Dickens
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- Nana by Émile Zola
- La Joie de Vivre by Émile Zola
- L’Oeuvre by Émile Zola
