Author Description

Developed in close collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, written by the museum's former chief curator dr. Fred Leeman, and narrated by Academy Award©-winner Dame Helen Mirren, this audio-biography provides you with a highly accessible and lively expert account of Van Gogh's life in just under two hours. The accompanying art booklets trace the development of his revolutionary work and its increasingly successful reception up to this day. Helen Mirren narrates the story of Vincent's struggle for recognition, and his existential doubts about the value of success. Vincent's quest to live an authentic, artistic, life is an endeavor that speaks to our shared human uncertainties and strengths. Here, for the first time, the artist's marketing acumen, his protracted struggle for recognition, and his ultimate refusal of that same recognition are put center-stage. The booklets allow you to reflect on Van Gogh's work while listening, and illustrate in lavish detail how his oeuvre was catapulted to ever greater fame after his tragically early death. Taken together, the audio-biography & art book lets you follow Van Gogh's challenging ascent from a late and unpromising start to the heights of his current reputation.