Now, at last, with “Van Gogh: The Life’’ by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, we have what could very well be the definitive biography, comparable to Hilary Spurling’s work on Matisse or John Richardson’s on Picasso. In it we get a much fuller view of van Gogh, owing to the decade Naifeh and White Smith spent on research to create this scholarly and spellbinding work. Against all odds the pair, whose most recent triumph was “Jackson Pollock: An American Saga,’’ on which the movie “Pollock’’ was based, have managed to slough off ossified impressions and speculations and gotten into van Gogh’s skin, making it possible for us to experience anew his heartbreaking relationships with his family and a much wider circle of friends and acquaintances.
The book quickly introduces us to the family, starting with van Gogh’s grandparents and his parents and their difficult relationships with their five children, the oldest of whom was Vincent, born on the birthday of their first child, also called Vincent, who died in infancy. Van Gogh was “strange’’ from early on, and the struggles he endured to be accepted by almost everyone he encountered, starting with his parents, are devastating. Sent away to boarding school when he was clearly not ready, van Gogh forever longed for home, but whenever he returned, it was always a short-lived disaster.
So were his attempts at art dealing, teaching, and preaching which took him to Paris, England, and the Brabant section of Belgium, all vividly portrayed by the authors. We discover whom he fell in love with, what he read, what artists he loved - Millet and Rembrandt were favorites - and the complexities of his relationship with Theo, his younger brother and financial supporter, who was as troubled in his way as Vincent, and whose death less than six months after his older brother’s was as mysterious.
