Van Gogh and Nature (Clark Art Institute Series (YUP))

This handsome book is undoubtedly the authoritative statement on its subject. Comprising an introduction and five probing essays, by three scholars, it charts the artist’s changing approach when painting natural subjects. Together these chapters sequentially divide van Gogh’s production into four phases which correspond to where he was residing (Holland; Paris; Arles & Saint-Remy; the Auvers-sur-Oise), each phase getting a focussed chapter. The authors also point out we can further see a set of sub-themes in van Gogh’s images of nature: versions of still-life; rural views & forests; close-ups of landscapes; farmlands & market gardens; orchards; villages within landscapes; and parks & gardens.The authors each show that van Gogh was fixed on recording the changing seasons, producing pictures in integrated groups. These are now, regrettably, scattered around museums - the most striking example is with several canvases of fruit trees in blossom which van Gogh wanted to be kept and hung together as a suite (they are reproduced across two pages according to the artist's hanging plan). There is an overarching stress in the book on plotting out formal changes in the artist's style, showing how his treatment of a theme progressively evolved: the book is very good at identifying compositional schema and the form of brush strokes identified with each of these phases. Good use is made of van Gogh’s comments about nature in his letters, the articles judiciously using quotations to back up observations about the paintings. But it is evasive about the symbolic overtones in many landscapes, nor does it go far into how cultural attitudes to nature were changing – the stress is on the artist's composition and technique.Most interesting is the second essay “Van Gogh, Nature and Science” by Richard Kendall which ranges into the artist’s serious interest in ornithology and biology, his early debts to nature illustrators, and, very briefly, a potential influence of Lutheran attitudes to nature. This essay alone represents a major contribution to understanding of the artist - and his lovingly rendered & scientifically accurate drawings of birds, moths and nests are a wonder to behold.The book is intelligently designed, with the high quality colour plates being arranged to suggest visual and thematic affinities in pictures. Indeed, the sequential arrangement of the illustrations will change and enrichen the reader’s appreciation of this artist.If there is a slight overlap with  Vincent van Gogh: Timeless Country - Modern City , this is a much stronger, more focussed and analytically sound work. A six star book!