An enlightening insight into Van Gogh’s life. Beautifully illustrated and portrayed more of his life than I would ever have imagined knowing before

4 stars

Beautiful and heartbreaking... like Vincent himself.
I would never rate anything praising this marvelous artist.
I love the artwork and the way the story was told.
Jo as well as Theo are very much part of Vincent's life and I love it when they're highlighted.
Overall this was a wonderful graphic biography.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This Vincent van Gogh biography is far from comprehensive, but it is still a wonderful place to start when learning about this artist. It is narrated by his sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who is the reason he is celebrated so extensively today. The book takes the reader through van Gogh’s life from birth until death, exploring both the good and bad moments. While the end does get quite detailed, I wish the beginning of his career had been more thoroughly explored. Another critical part of his life that could have been examined in more depth was his stay in Arles with Paul Gauguin. These nine weeks were crucial to how we perceive the post-impressionism movement today, as neither van Gogh’s nor Gauguin’s art would be what we know without that period. A perfect complementary read for this part of van Gogh’s life is Martin Gayford’s The Yellow House.

One thing worth congratulating the author for, in particular, is the final section of the book. The prose is incredibly well-written, allowing the reader to gain insight into how and why we know van Gogh’s work in the way we do today. This is all thanks to the aforementioned Jo van Gogh-Bonger, who preserved Theo van Gogh’s legacy and promoted Vincent’s work worldwide.

Regarding the graphic nature of the novel, I felt the reading order of the prose could have been clearer, as at times I didn’t know where to continue reading. The illustrations seemed rather lacklustre in the beginning, but Elliott’s style really develops and shines when depicting van Gogh’s paintings, which deserves applause. It feels like a perfect communion of both artists' styles.

Overall, it is an enjoyable read, definitely targeted towards people unfamiliar with or just beginning to explore the life of this legendary painter, though it may leave more seasoned art history lovers wanting more.

Thank you, Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion, for providing an ARC for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Amazing.

A fun graphic novel about the life of Vincent Van Gogh as told by his sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger.

Lovely way to write a story about such a character. I learned many new thing I never knew about Van Gogh. Light and yet very informative.

Thank you Quarto Publishing Group and Netgalley for the ARC of this graphic novel.

I greatly enjoyed this title and anticipate that audiences of all ages will enjoy and appreciate it. Truly a beautiful read.

In this graphic biography of Vincent Van Gogh, the graphic biography is written from the point of view of Vincent’s sister-in-law, who was married to his brother, Theo. After Theo died shortly after Vincent, she inherited Vincent’s artwork and set upon a plan to establish his legacy and make the world aware of his art.
#VincentAGraphicBiography #NetGalley

I wanted this book to be much better than it ended up being, unfortunately. The cover made me think that maybe it would be drawn in the style of Vincent van Gogh, but instead the artwork was underwhelming. I liked the angle of having his sister-in-law Jo tell his story, and it was very interesting to learn about her role in Vincent's career - that wasn't something I had heard about before. I liked that the information was broken into easy-to-read chunks. I viewed this book as a quick crash-course in the man behind all the paintings. I was disappointed that his mental illness wasn't talked about more, beyond just "he was depressed". I know they didn't have the vocabulary then that we do now, but it would help readers now fully understand his actions better.

I think a more fitting title for this would be "van Gogh" - even though Vincent was the main focus, we also learned a great deal about Theo and Jo. I think this would be a great read for someone around 5th-8th grade who has an interest in art history.

I absolutely love Vincent, he's my favorite artist of all time, and this book has a very interesting format: an illustrated book, in which the pov is from Theo's wife, Vincent's younger brother. Quite a good book, which has several chapters dedicated to different parts of Vincent's life (even a separate chapter was devoted to his romantic relationships), and in general it tells about his whole life from birth to death (and even a little later events, when he finally became famous for his paintings).

The only thing that I personally lacked: firstly, there are few paintings by Vincent (a few of the most popular ones are mentioned, but there actually exist many more of them); and, secondly, all these paintings are not shown as real, but reproduced by the illustrator in his own style. Don't get me wrong, the style of the illustrator is pretty, and those illustrations are really cute, but it'd be better to see the artist's real paintings in his biography, no?

I recommend reading this book both even if you know absolutely nothing about Vincent, and even if you have been interested in him before (like me) because you might still learn some new information or just be reminded of something.

Such a troubled life...

Not sure exactly how I feel about this book. The writing style was a bit stilted and the art style was a bit more cartoonish and unpolished than I cared to see in a finished book. The colors are beautiful and brings a vibrancy to the book that it seemed to lack otherwise. I learned a lot about Vincent, but the tone felt rushed and aloof.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for access to this e-ARC.

I initially found the writing a bit wooden but persisted to learn more of Van Gogh and am glad that I did. It is an engrossing story of Vincent Van Gogh's life and struggles as well as Theo and Johanna Van Gogh's love and support for him. The art style isn't particularly to my taste but the illustrations of Van Gogh's work are very charming.

A superb biography of the artist Vincent Van Gogh written from the perspective of his sister-in-law. Great for fans of Vincent (the movie), budding art students, or kids aged middle school and older. Trigger warning: mention of sex, mental health issues, substance abuse, and suicide. Illustrations are mesmerizing and the format is quite unique. A novel work that would also serve as a great coffee table book were it not for the beautiful, heart-wrenching tragedy that it contains. A beautiful tribute to a tortured soul who left only his textured paint strokes and letters behind to tell his tale.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quatro Publishing for letting me share my honest opinions of this eBook.

It was good to read this, almost 6 years ago I read A Memoir Of Vincent van Gogh by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger , whereafter I would looked at Vincent’s work differently.

I like how this graphic biography puts Jo van Gogh-Bonger and Theo van Gogh at center stage of Vincent van Gogh.

Jo van Gogh-Bonger was married to Vincent’s brother, Theo van Gogh, who passed away 6 months after Vincent from natural causes. When in 2018 I read Jo’s memoir of Vincent I realized Vincent’s art would have been long forgotten if it had not been for Jo and Theo.

The format of this is like a graphic novel that tells the story of Vincent’s life from Jo’s perspective, it’s a quick or very quick read, except I took weeks, reading this got me looking through my art books, Jo’s memoir and Vincent’s letters.

Simon Elliot’s book goes beyond Jo’s memoir, and continues after Vincent and Theo’s death. Elliot doesn’t just tell the story of Vincent’s life and art but also notes Jo’s efforts of promoting Vincent’s art.

Once again, I am left with complete admiration for Jo: her knowledge of art was limited, and I’m thinking, like the art and art critics mentioned in this book, the galleries she approached were also run by men. This is the 1890s, for her to succeed shows her truly amazing strength in character.

I’m glad I read this, it’s nice Jo van Gogh-Bonger (along with Theo) is remembered here.

The sadness lives forever....

This book wasn't engaging at the start but towards the end, it was actually quite good. The depiction of Van Gogh's mental issues brought tears to my eyes, redeeming what could have otherwise been a subpar book. Probably not the best biography of the troubled artist but it wasn't a total disaster.

This is a really delightful look at one of the most dynamic painters in Western art. The art style is very Van Gogh inspired which really added to the reading experience.

a quick read about the life of vincent van gogh, i wish the artist had more time polishing most of the artworks in this book because they all looked rushed. i don't know if that was the intention, but it just didn't look final.

Pretty good. I wanted to learn more about Van Gogh and I absolutely love his paintings, so this didn’t disappoint!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchage of an honest review,

My first time with a Graphic Biography, and although I knew a lot about Van Gogh, his life and works, this was an interesting and different way of reading about him as we are told this from his sister-in-law's pov, and the type of drawing I fancied so much, it is so appealing to the eye.

I would have loved for some of Vincent's actions which were heavily related to his mental health to be explicitly explained in that way. I feel like this read would be more liked by people who maybe do not know so much about him, than people who have read other works and hve informed themselves from other sources. However, as I said, it portrays a different pov which can be enlightening in some aspects.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me access to this book
This book brought a lot of insight to me about Vincent Van Gogh the artist because I have always known his name as we learnt about him in art class and what not but I have never gotten like a full breakdown of his life before and how he became a world renowned artist. You know in history people tended to love to leave out the part about the community around successful people not understanding that those people wouldn’t have been successful without the community around them , I had never once heard of Jo , Theo’s wife neither had I heard about their son Vincent but I am happy that I know now , as someone who is fan of seeing how art changed and progressed over the years this was such and enlightening read for me and I would recommend if you are interested in knowing more about the life that Vincent Van Gogh lived

I've always been enthralled by Vincent van Gogh's artwork and story. As such, I think I've read over a dozen biographies about the artist (no, really; I'm pretty sure my family preorders every new one that comes out, knowing it'll make a good gift for me). So, obviously, I had to nab Vincent: A Graphic Biography while I had the chance!

In truth, I'm a bit confused by some of the choices behind Vincent: A Graphic Biography. The perspective is an odd choice, a series of letters written by Jo van Gogh-Bonger (Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law).

Another odd choice is the art style. While some of the color palettes match van Gogh's style, the artwork itself does not. Now, I know that is a HUGE ask, so I'm not going to dock a ton of points for this, but it was a little disappointing/jarring.

Overall, I'd say that Vincent: A Graphic Biography is a decent biography. It's a solid starting point if you're looking to learn more about Vincent van Gogh.

Highlights:
Biography
Vincent van Gogh Biography
Art History in Comic Form

This was a decent graphic novel and did a good job moving through the artists life told through the point of view of his sister in-law.