The Letters, 6 volumes (First Edition)

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) wrote, over the last eighteen years of his life, more than 900 surviving letters. The overwhelming majority to his younger brother Theo, an art dealer in Paris whose financial and emotional support sustained Vincent through every stage of his short and precarious career, but also to fellow artists including Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard, to his sister Wil, and to his parents. Together they constitute one of the most extensive and revealing bodies of correspondence left by any major artist in history.

This edition, published in 2009 after fifteen years of research by a team led by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten, and Nienke Bakker at the Van Gogh Museum and the Huygens Institute, is the definitive critical edition of the complete correspondence and represents one of the most significant achievements in the scholarly presentation of primary source material in the history of art publishing. Previous editions of the letters were based on incomplete transcriptions, contained translation errors accumulated across successive editions and re-translations, and lacked the systematic annotation that modern scholarship demands. This edition corrects the historical record from first principles: every surviving letter was re-examined against the original manuscript, re-transcribed, and newly translated into English directly from Van Gogh's original French and Dutch, with the editorial team resolving longstanding disputes over dating, recipients, and textual accuracy that had accumulated across a century of prior scholarship.

Quarto. All six volumes in original publisher's hardcover, in original unclipped dust jackets, housed together in a large slipcase. Comprising: Vol. I, The Hague – Etten, 1872–1881 [letters 1–193]; Vol. II, The Hague, 1881–1883 [194–384]; Vol. III, Drenthe – Paris, 1883–1887 [385–576]; Vol. IV, Arles, 1888–1889 [577–771]; Vol. V, Saint-Rémy – Auvers, 1889–1890 [772–902]; Vol. VI, Commentary & Indexes. Approximately 2,000 pp. in total, with 4,300 illustrations, including facsimile reproductions of every surviving letter, together with new English translations, full scholarly annotation, and reproductions of the sketches Van Gogh included within his correspondence. First edition. Published jointly by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, and the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands. Set has been immaculately preserved and presents as such. Pristine and beautiful throughout, in fine dust jackets.

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This book is currently on display in the rare book section of our Leichhardt store.
If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au

Catalogue Number: HH000424