Memoir of Vincent van Gogh

What am I in the eyes of most people - a non-entity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person - somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then - even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calm, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven to-wards these things with an irresistible momentum. Vincent van Gogh's short, passionate life was driven by an almost unimaginable creative energy that eventually overwhelmed him. The outlines of his story ? the early strivings in Holland and Paris, the revelatory impact of the move to Provence, the attacks of madness that led ineluctably to his suicide ? are almost as familiar as the paintings. Few however knew Van Gogh as well as his sister-in-law. After Vincent's death and that of her husband, his brother Theo, Jo van Gogh-Bonger devoted her life to preserving and exhibiting his paintings, and editing his letters. It is thanks to her tireless work that Vincent's greatness as an artist (and indeed as a writer) came to be acknowledged. Jo's short biography of Vincent is perhaps the closest we can come to Vincent the man, as seen by those who knew him. 87 colour illustrations