Mrs Van Gogh: The breathtaking historical novel inspired by the true story of the woman who made Van Gogh famous

Product Information

It starts out with Johanna, supposedly an aspiring artist, arriving in Paris to live with her brother. Caroline Cauchi knows how to capture the reader’s attention with her vivid and original imaginings of what might have happened during the years when Johanna was a part of their lives. Briefly, after Vincent was ‘exiled’ to Arles, after exhibiting unacceptable behaviour in Paris, he started painting brighter works of nature but his psychotic episodes grew worse and after a disagreement with his friend Gauguin cut off part of his own ear. Yet, when Jo was widowed in 1891 with a small child to raise, she defied Victorian norms and became a promotional phenom. They did finally go ahead and wed, making a prenuptial agreement that the property they brought into the marriage would remain separate.

The author seems to be making statements about the treatment of women artists and women’s lives in general but for me it wasn’t new and it could’ve been dealt with in a quicker way. I loved how this started and the important light shined upon the female artists in Paris in the late 1800s.I loved travelling through Jo’s journey, from the very beginning, to her first meeting with Theo, to the very end.

cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( link) Webpage announcing the biography of Johanna Bonger.How lucky readers are going to be to read this utterly absorbing and deeply moving book for the first time. At the end, she emerges as a strong woman with her own voice, who leads the way with her ambitious project.

Van Gogh, a play by Geoff Allen, who previously authored the play Vincent and Theo, was performed in 2012 at the University of Auckland, NZ, with a reviewer panning it as "Wikipedia for the stage," lacking in emotion and failing to convey why she spent a lifetime promoting Vincent's work. I had never heard of Mrs Van Gough (Vincent’s sister in law) so relished this account of her life and starring role in bringing Vincent Van Gough’s work to the world and effectively making him posthumously famous. After Vincent's death, Theo organized an exhibition of his brother's paintings in their Montmartre apartment in Paris. As Vincent descended into his madness and spent time in an asylum, Johanna and Theo married and started a family, yet Vincent was always there, demanding their time and their money. Caroline Cauchi has a great way of telling the story and it left me wanting more from Caroline Cauchi.The question about Vincent’s life is whether in his last battle he tried to end it or whether he was injured in an accident? She was successful in attracting favorable attention for Vincent's work, mounting a show on Fifth Avenue. Dries is more sympathetic and encourages his sister to pursue her love art whilst in Paris and introduces her to some of the most famous artists of the era, incluisng Gaughin, Camille Claudel, Rodin and Vincent Van Gogh, as well as his wealthy art dealer brothrr Theo. It’s also a story of loss and mental illness, it’s a social commentary, it’s about feminism, it’s a story of art and a great artists but it is mainly the story of a woman who has for the most part lived in the shadows of history despite being the most important part of Vincent van Gogh’s journey in becoming one of the worlds most renown artists.

Although a work of fiction, this extremely well written novel has introduced me to one of the most important female figures in the history of art. Her story begins with her ambitions, which quickly are put aside, then the story progresses with her marriage and friendship with Vincent.Going into the marriage, Jo knew that the relationship between her future husband and his brother Vincent was strong, so that in marrying Theo, she was also in essence marrying Vincent as well. There are some better moments including around Camille Claudel and Rodin, the building of the Eiffel Tower and life in Paris.