Books by Cornelia Homburg
Van Gogh and Japan
by Nienke Bakker, Louis van Tilborgh, Cornelia Homburg, Tsukasa Kodera, Chris Uhlenbeck
“All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art.” –Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh’s (1853–1890) encounter with Japanese ukiyo-e prints during his time in Paris was decisive for the direction that his art would take in the years to come. He enthusiastically assembled a collection of the prints with the idea of dealing in them, and soon was captivated by their colorful and cheerful imagery and style, which began to exert a dramatic influence on his own work. Gradually this enchanted world became his main artistic reference point. From then on, he positioned himself as an artist in the Japanese tradition in order to gain a reputation with the avant-garde of the day.
This gorgeous publication offers a detailed reassessment of the impact Japanese printmaking had on Van Gogh’s creative output. Featuring essays by the world’s leading Van Gogh experts, this book details the ways in which the artist constructed his understanding of a Japanese aesthetic and his utopian ideal of a so-called primitive society, and incorporated these into his own vision and practice. The size, nature, and importance of Van Gogh’s own collection of Japanese prints are also explored. Lavish illustrations include oil paintings and drawings by Van Gogh as well as a selection of the Japanese works that so captured his imagination.
Distributed for Mercatorfonds
Exhibition Schedule:
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(03/23/18–06/24/18)
Copies
No copies available.
Gauguin: Portraits
by Cornelia Homburg, Christopher Riopelle
The first in-depth investigation of Gauguin’s portraits, revealing how the artist expanded the possibilities of the genre in new and exciting ways
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in his portraits, a genre he remained engaged with throughout all phases of his career. Bringing together more than 60 of Gauguin’s portraits in a wide variety of media that includes painting, works on paper, and sculpture, this handsomely illustrated volume is the first focused investigation of the multifaceted ways the artist approached the subject.
Essays by a group of international experts consider how the artist’s conception of portraiture evolved as he moved between Brittany and Polynesia. They also examine how Gauguin infused his work with symbolic meaning by taking on different roles like the Christ figure and the savage in his self-portraits and by placing his models in suggestive settings with alluring attributes. This welcome addition to the scholarship on one of the 19th century’s most innovative and controversial artists reveals fascinating insights into the crucial role that portraiture played in Gauguin’s overall artistic practice.
Distributed for the National Gallery of Canada
Exhibition Schedule:
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
(05/24/19–09/08/19)
National Gallery, London
(10/07/19–01/26/20)
Copies
No copies available.
Neo-Impressionism and the Dream of Realities: Painting, Poetry, Music
A beautifully illustrated investigation of Neo-Impressionism in late 19th-century Paris and Brussels
This stunning catalogue explores the creative exchange between Neo-Impressionist painters and Symbolist writers and composers in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Symbolism, with its emphasis on subjectivity, dream worlds, and spirituality, has often been considered at odds with Neo-Impressionism’s approach to portraying color and light. This book repositions the relationship between these movements and looks at how Neo-Impressionist artists such as Maximilien Luce, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Henry van de Velde created evocative landscape and figural scenes by depicting emptiness, contemplative moods, Arcadia, and other themes. Beautifully illustrated with 130 color images, this book reveals the vibrancy and depth of the Neo-Impressionist movement in Paris and Brussels in the late 19th century.
Published in association with the Phillips Collection
Exhibition Schedule:
The Phillips Collection
(09/27/14-01/11/15)
Copies
No copies available.
Van Gogh: Up Close
by Vincent Van Gogh, Cornelia Homburg, Philadelphia Museum Of Art., National Gallery Of Canada
An entirely new perspective on the genius of Van Gogh, revealing for the first time the artist’s approach to nature through his innovative use of the close-up view
This sumptuously illustrated book offers a completely new way of looking at the art of Vincent van Gogh, by exploring the artist’s approach to nature through his innovative use of the close-up view. Focusing on the last years of the artist’s career—from 1886 until his death in July 1890—an international team of leading scholars in the field examines Van Gogh’s radical approach to the close-up and sets it in the context of contemporary and historical references, such as his hitherto unrecognized use of photography and his fascination with the Old Masters and with Japanese art and culture.
One hundred key paintings dating from his arrival in Paris in 1886 to the end of his career show how Van Gogh experimented with unusual visual angles and the decorative use of color, cropping, and the flattening of his compositions. In some paintings he zoomed in on a tuft of grass or a single budding iris, while depicting shifting views of a field or garden in others. Van Gogh: Up Close not only reveals how these paintings became the most radical and innovative in the artist's body of work but also demonstrates that, far from being a spontaneous or undisciplined artist, Van Gogh was well aware of the history of art and was highly conscious of his efforts to break new ground with his work.
Published in association with the National Gallery of Canada
Exhibition Schedule:
Philadelphia Museum of Art
(02/01/12–05/06/12)
National Gallery of Canada
(05/25/12–09/03/12)
Copies
No copies available.
Vincent van Gogh: A Portrait of His Life and Work (Y)
Vincent Van Gogh is famous for both his remarkable paintings and his tortured life. This large, beautiful book offers unique insight into the solitary genius: his attempts to forge a career, the inspiration he found in the Paris of the late 1880s and in the light and colors of Provence, his mental decline, and final days. With glorious illustrations and personal documents--including letters--Vincent van Gogh brings his world to life.
Copies
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Van Gogh
An original interpretation of the final years of Van Gogh’s career, exploring the people and places in his late paintings
The years prior to Van Gogh’s death in 1890 were pivotal to the painter’s brief artistic career. He was working in the South of France and intent on creating new work which would advance his career. Van Gogh set about developing compositions that were informed by the natural world surrounding him, by the poets and lovers he encountered in literature, and by the individual models he was depicting. The process of his imaginative transformations has never been explored, and this will provide the opportunity to present significant new insights into the much-loved painter’s life.
The catalogue features an incredible range of ambitious canvases and important works on paper. It presents new research on themes including the artist’s innovative approach to exhibiting his work and the varied literary sources that inspired his characters and compositions. These topics are rarely written about in relation to this well-known artist and are bound to expand both scholarly and public interpretations of Van Gogh’s remarkable oeuvre.
Published by National Gallery Global/Distributed by Yale University Press
Exhibition Schedule:
The National Gallery, London
(14 September 2024–19 January 2025)
Copies
No copies available.