True to Temperament: Van Gogh and Naturalist Literature

Van Gogh's fascination with contemporary literature has never been studied as comprehensively as it is in this book, which includes an analysis of Van Gogh's reading habits. The author demonstrates that the Dutch painter considered modern French literature the epitome of cutting edge cultural production, and argues that the work and pronouncements of the writers he most admired - Zola, Maupassant, Daudet, and the Goncourt brothers - informed his notion of modernism by providing entree into the world of the Parisian avant-garde. The painter's production and his predilection for Naturalist prose are shown to be decisively linked and mutually reinforcing.Judy Sund is the author of 'True to Temperament: Van Gogh and Naturalist Literature', published 1992 under ISBN 9780521410809 and ISBN 0521410800.