The Yellow House

The Yellow House

Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles

Summary

Two artistic giants. One small house.

From October to December 1888 a pair of largely unknown artists lived under one roof in the French provincial town of Arles. Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh ate, drank, talked, argued, slept and painted in one of the most intense and astonishing creative outpourings in history. Yet as the weeks passed Van Gogh buckled under the strain, fought with his companion and committed an act of violence on himself that prompted Gauguin to flee without saying goodbye to his friend.

The Yellow House is an intimate portrait of their time together as well as a subtle exploration of a fragile friendship, art, madness, genius and the shocking act of self-mutilation that the world has sought to explain ever since.

Reviews

  • A drily witty, original and profoundly absorbing book
    Independent

About the author

Martin Gayford

Martin Gayford has been art critic for the Spectator and the Sunday Times, and Chief European Art Critic for Bloomberg. Among his publications are: A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney; Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud; Constable in Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter; The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles; The Penguin Book of Art Writing, of which he was the co-editor; and contributions to many catalogues. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.
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