Books by Nienke Bakker

On the Verge of Insanity: Van Gogh and His Illness

by Nienke Bakker, Louis van Tilborgh, Laura Prins

Accompanying the groundbreaking exhibition currently at the Van Gogh Museum, this publication features new information on Van Gogh's self-inflicted wound to his ear as well as identifying the revolver that was likely used in his suicide

The mental state of Vincent van Gogh (1853--1890) has been a perennial source of discussion and conjecture since his death by suicide. Was he mentally ill or a genius? What was the precise nature of Van Gogh’s illness? Did it influence his work? This intriguing publication examines how Van Gogh’s mental condition revealed itself in 1888 and how he struggled with it throughout his life. Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo, his artist friends, and his sister Willemien reveal that his primary reason for living was his art.

Richly illustrated with artworks, letters, previously unpublished historical documents, and photographs, On the Verge of Insanity provides a nuanced and considered overview of an extraordinary man who had to cope with mental illness at a time when the symptoms were readily misunderstood and professional treatment was insufficient. The authors also offer a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding Van Gogh’s death in Auvers-sur-Oise, and they review the many diagnoses that have been proposed since the artist's death.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:
Van Gogh Museum
(07/15/16–09/25/16)

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)

Van Gogh and the Olive Groves

by Nienke Bakker, Nicole Myers

Combining deep focus with a multifaceted approach to reveal formal, technical, and spiritual aspects of the olive tree motif that dominated the painter’s production during his time in a Provençal asylum

Van Gogh and the Olive Groves reunites for the first time the important series of paintings that Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) dedicated to the motif of olive trees during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The book contextualizes this work within Van Gogh’s artistic production and explores its deeply personal, often religious resonance. It also features in-depth findings on the artist’s technique, materials, and palette resulting from a three-year cross-disciplinary conservation science research project that rigorously examined all 15 paintings. Of particular interest are new discoveries concerning Van Gogh’s use of unstable pigments, his application of paint en plein air versus in the studio, and the chronology of the series. Produced between June and December 1889, this bold and highly experimental series employs the motif as a constant in the artist’s passionate investigation of the expressive powers of color, line, and subject. Painting the olive trees at different times of day and in different seasons was a quest to unlock their quintessential features, which to him represented the spirit of Provence.

Distributed for the Dallas Museum of Art

Exhibition Schedule: Dallas Museum of Art
(October 17, 2021–February 6, 2022)

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(March 11–June 12, 2022)

The World According to Vincent van Gogh (The World According To... Series, 7)

by Nienke Bakker, Anne Blokland, Esther Darley

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Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Final Months

by Nienke Bakker, Louis van Tilborgh, Emmanuel Coquery

A landmark publication tracing the final months of Van Gogh’s life.
Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Final Months offers a unique and impressive overview of the paintings and drawings that Vincent van Gogh created during the last seventy days of his life. He produced no fewer than seventy-four paintings and over thirty drawings in the course of the intense, productive period leading up to his self-inflicted death on July 29, 1890. While the Portrait of Dr Gachet, The Church at Auvers, and Wheatfield with Crows are numbered among his greatest masterpieces, this part of his oeuvre is otherwise less known―unfairly so―than the sunny landscapes he painted in the south of France.
The book follows the artist from his arrival in Auvers-sur-Oise,where he set to work full of hope and with fresh ambitions, through to his final weeks. Essays by leading Van Gogh specialists highlight his artistic ambitions and mental state during this final phase, his exploration of the Auvers landscape, the flower still lifes, the portraits, and the panoramic landscapes he painted there, the role played by his drawings, and his artistic reputation at the time of his death and in the years immediately afterward.
In addition to the Auvers paintings, the book is richly illustrated with drawings, sketches, historical photographs, and detailed maps of the places Van Gogh worked. Also featured are related works by contemporaries and predecessors whom he admired. 220 color illustrations

Vincent Van Gogh, Painted with Words: The Letters to Emile Bernard

by Nienke Bakker, Leo Jansen, Hans Luitjen, The Van Gogh Museum

This important, groundbreaking publication contains the illustrated letters between two great modern artists–Vincent van Gogh and Émile Bernard. The original letters were previously in private hands and have not been seen for approximately seventy years. Here they are published in association with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and an exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York. In addition to the letters, the book also includes paintings, photographs, and drawings by both artists, as well as works by artists of the period, such as Paul Gauguin and Jean-François Millet. These letters, written between 1887 and 1889, are among the most important and relevant sources of insight into van Gogh’s life and art. They bridge the time when van Gogh was living and working in Paris, where he painted most of his self-portraits (mainly because he was unable to afford models), to the small town of Arles, in Provence. Here he adopted new types of compositions and developed new ideas about color–all of which he describes in detail in letters to his friend and fellow painter Bernard. Only a year later, in July 1890, van Gogh died, at the age of thirty-seven. The authors have carefully placed each letter in context of relevant events and have written authoritative commentaries on the content of the letters.

Van Gogh The Roulin Family Portraits

by Nienke Bakker, Bregje Gerritse, Lydia Vagts, Katie Hanson, Christopher D. M. Atkins, Rachel Childers, Richard Newman, Muriel Geldof, Erin Mysak, Kathrin Pilz

With vibrant colors and imaginative backgrounds, Van Gogh's affectionate renderings of an entire family underscore his love of portraiture

Vincent van Gogh once wrote, "What I'm most passionate about...is the portrait, the modern portrait." This passion flourished between 1888 and '89 when, during his stay in Arles, in the South of France, the artist created a number of portraits of a neighboring family that had agreed to sit for him. The family included the local postman Joseph Roulin; his wife, Augustine; and their three children, Armand, Camille and Marcelle. Over the course of his year in Arles, the artist created an astonishing 26 painted portraits of the family members, both in groups and individually, as well as multiple drawings.
Van Gogh's tender relationship with the postman and his family and his groundbreaking portrayals of them are at the heart of this book, the first dedicated to the Roulin portraits. Drawing on letters from the artist, archival material, contemporary criticism and technical studies, The Roulin Family Portraits features insightful essays on Van Gogh's practice, his beliefs about portraiture, his personal relationship with the Roulins and his admiration for his contemporaries as well as 17th-century Dutch portraitists.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) began his painting career in his late twenties, influenced first by his work as a missionary in a mining region of Belgium, and later by his exposure to Impressionism while living in Paris. His bright signature style emerged after relocating to the South of France, where he produced more than 2,000 artworks in just over a decade.