A Fire in His Soul

Van Gogh, Paris, and the Making of an Artist

Miles J. Unger

The fascinating story of Vincent van Gogh’s two groundbreaking years in Paris, where he transformed himself from a provincial unknown into one of the world’s great visionary artists.

Vincent Van Gogh arrived in the French capital on the last day of February 1886, a month short of his thirty-third birthday. He was a man beaten down by life, half-starved, and nearly broken psychologically. He was saved by his brother Theo, who provided him with room, board, and, most crucially, emotional support while he attempted to master the difficult craft of painting. Thus far, Vincent's crude scenes of peasant life rendered in murky shades of brown and gray were both hackneyed and amateurish. Theo, a successful art dealer at a prestigious Parisian firm, dismissed them as gloomy, unappealing, and, worst of all, unmarketable.

By the time Vincent left Paris, almost exactly two years later, he’d transformed himself into one of the most original artists of the age, turning out works of hallucinatory intensity in vivid hues and stamped with his own distinctive personality. A Fire in His Soul chronicles this remarkable transformation. It’s a tale filled with tragedy and triumph, personal anguish and creative fulfillment, as Vincent, through sheer force of will, reinvents himself as a painter of unparalleled expressive power.

Along the way, the reader will discover an unfamiliar Van Gogh: not the solitary genius of the popular imagination, shunned by an uncomprehending world and conjuring masterpieces from the depths of his lonely soul. In Paris, he was at the center of a community of like-minded seekers. Here, Van Gogh was able to engage in a lively dialogue with fellow artists almost as daring as he was, expanding his notion of what art could and should be.

It was in the cafes and studios of Montmartre and in the grand galleries of the Louvre and Luxembourg, that Van Gogh received his artistic education—a crash course that at first disoriented him but ultimately sparked his creative breakthrough. Working alongside such legendary figures as Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, and Signac, Vincent perfected his technique and launched an artistic revolution.

Miles J. Unger writes on art, books, and culture for The Economist. Formerly the managing editor of Art New England, for many years he was a contributing writer to the New York Times. He is the author of Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World; The Watercolors of Winslow Homer; Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici; Machiavelli: A Biography; and Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces. Miles lives in Boston. To learn more about Miles’s books, please visit www.MilesJunger.com.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"A wonderfully readable biography that counters the popular cliché of Van Gogh as a holy recluse. He leaps off the page: not simply the tortured and brilliant man of the popular imagination but a wildly ambitious, hard-working, and analytical artist immersed in the radical artistic debates of the day. In two groundbreaking years in Paris, Van Gogh transformed his visual language from the humdrum to the visionary, the vivacity of his paintings a reflection of the originality of the man and of a society hurtling towards modernity. However, A Fire in His Soul isn’t just the story of an artist; it’s also a tender portrayal of the complexities of brotherly love and an analysis of the structural support that every artist, however brilliant, needs in order to succeed.” Jennifer Higgie, author of The Mirror and the Palette and The Other Side

"It’s hard to imagine, now, the radical nature of Van Gogh’s art and the way it reinvented our view of the world. We need Miles J. Unger's book to peel back the years and reveal that shock of the new. This incredible, psychological, almost-forensic investigation of Van Gogh’s life and work brings both so vividly to the page, you’ll think you have actually stepped into the artist’s Technicolor dreams.” Philip Hoare, author of Albert and the Whale and William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love

"This evocative, engaging, and superbly researched account tells the true story of Van Gogh at a turning point in his career, inviting readers to meet the man behind the myths.” Ruth Millington, author of Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History's Masterpieces

Praise for Miles J. Unger’s Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World:

"Bohemian Montmartre comes brilliantly to life, as do the artist’s struggles." The New Yorker

“The birth of modernism a century ago was one of history's greatest moments of creative disruption. One major spark was an astonishing painting by Picasso, and Miles Unger brings us both the drama and brilliance of that creation in this thrilling book.”—Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo da Vinci Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo da Vinci

“Riveting. . . . This engrossing book chronicles with precision and enthusiasm a painting with lasting impact in today’s art world.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An engrossing read. . . . Unger draws not just from his own wide knowledge and considered taste but from an imposing array of journals, memoirs, biographies and periodicals. From these, he offers a historically and psychologically rich account of the young Picasso and his coteries in Barcelona and Paris.” Alexander C. Kafka, The Washington Post

"This excellent narrative by art historian and journalist Miles Unger culminates in Pablo Picasso’s creation of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907. In exploring the groundbreaking work, Unger combines the personal story of Picasso’s early years in Paris – his friendships, his romances, his great ambition, his fears—with the larger story of modernism and the avant-garde." Christian Science Monitor

"[A] vibrant biography. Unger succeeds in making Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, the book’s titular painting, accessible. Heady modern art is made over as approachable and exciting." Booklist