Twenty years of intense study: Van Gogh’s favourite books on Dutch seventeenth-century art

Summary This article discusses the historical and art-historical literature read by Vincent van Gogh on the subject of the Dutch seventeenth century, which formed the basis of his view of individual artists. While it can be read independently, it is also intended to frame the other articles in this thematic issue, each of which delves into Van Gogh’s relationship with a particular painter. His intensive study of seventeenth-century art was made possible by the popularization of literature on the subject, the easy availability of print reproductions, and the increasing accessibility of collections in museums. For the first time, the general public could lay claim to their history. Van Gogh did so too. He was very selective when it came to historical literature. What most interested him was the resilience and sobriety the texts ascribed to the seventeenth-century Dutch. The art-historical literature that most appealed to him included the popular books Les musées d’Hollande (1858–1860) by Theophile Thoré-Bürger and Les maîtres d’autrefois (1876) by Eugène Fromentin. In their view, what made Dutch art so innovative was its unprecedentedly realistic depiction of the everyday life and surroundings in a new society of free citizens. The refined powers of observation and absolute mastery of technical means, such as drawing, use of colour, brushwork, distribution of light and dark, and composition, meant that the best painters were able to imbue that simple reality with universal value. In the eyes of influential contemporary art critics such as Thoré and Fromentin, this made seventeenth-century Dutch painting an excellent example for modern art. Van Gogh adapted these ideas to the debate surrounding Realism as it unfolded in Dutch art criticism between around 1865 and 1880. In this way, he laid the foundations for his own conception of art, in which Realism was central, but Romantic ideas of individual expression also had a role to play. As he saw it, the deep-rooted observation of the simple life lay at the basis of art, which had to be capable of conveying that profound and personal experience to the viewer, lending it the power to console.