Vincent van Gogh and George Eliot
Title
Vincent van Gogh and George Eliot
Description
One of the happy coincidences of the 200th anniversary year was the Tate Gallery
exhibition of ‘Van Gogh and Britain’ with its revelation of the artist’s familiarity with English literature and with the fiction of George Eliot in particular. The extent of van Gogh’s admiration for the novelist can be seen in his letters, now available in English translation on line.1 Writing to Anthon van Rappard in March 1883, he
claims that his ‘sympathies in the literary as well as the artistic sphere are drawn most strongly to those in whom I see the soul most at work’, and he includes George Eliot in that category, maintaining that she has that ‘something different’ that he also finds in Jozef Israëls and Charles Dickens.
exhibition of ‘Van Gogh and Britain’ with its revelation of the artist’s familiarity with English literature and with the fiction of George Eliot in particular. The extent of van Gogh’s admiration for the novelist can be seen in his letters, now available in English translation on line.1 Writing to Anthon van Rappard in March 1883, he
claims that his ‘sympathies in the literary as well as the artistic sphere are drawn most strongly to those in whom I see the soul most at work’, and he includes George Eliot in that category, maintaining that she has that ‘something different’ that he also finds in Jozef Israëls and Charles Dickens.
Creator
John Rignall
Source
Rignall, John. "Vincent van Gogh and George Eliot." George Eliot Review, vol. 51, 2020, pp. 110-115. George Eliot Review Online, https://GeorgeEliotReview.org
Publisher
George Eliot Review Online, https://GeorgeEliotReview.org
Date
2020
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Document Viewer
Collection
Citation
John Rignall, “Vincent van Gogh and George Eliot,” George Eliot Review Online, accessed September 27, 2021, https://georgeeliotreview.org/items/show/938.