Book Summary and Reviews of The Widow Van Gogh by Joan Martelli

Book Summary

A vivid new biography uncovers the fascinating story of Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger, the true steward of Van Gogh's art and legacy after Vincent and Theo's early deaths.

On a stormy summer night in 1891, a young Dutch widow left her home and went for a walk outside alone in the rain. It was the anniversary of the death of her brother-in-law, Vincent van Gogh, and she was at the beginning of an improbable decades-long journey that would transform the ridiculed and unappreciated painter into one of the most beloved artists of all time.

Johanna "Jo" van Gogh-Bonger is a critical piece of the puzzle in understanding the life and posthumous fame of Vincent van Gogh, but most have never even heard her name. Jo was the wife of Vincent's younger brother Theo, and when Theo died just six months after Vincent, she found herself with an extraordinary inheritance that included a treasure trove of Vincent's drawings, letters, and some four hundred paintings.Family, friends, and critics considered it largely worthless. Vincent's life's work might well have wound up lost, casually dispersed, or relegated to the family attic. But Jo, who was convinced Vincent was a misunderstood genius, had other ideas.

The Widow Van Gogh takes a fresh and illuminating approach to the Van Gogh story by placing Jo at the center. While they had every intention of being good to each other, Vincent, Theo and Jo found themselves in a tragic love and financial triangle. Theo was torn between his love for Jo and his duty to Vincent; Vincent was a threat to the happiness of Theo and Jo; and Jo was a threat to Vincent's relationship with Theo. Joan Martelli offers new insight into the burning questions that have long puzzled art lovers—why Vincent cut off part of his ear, why he shot himself, and how, after selling one painting in his lifetime, he achieved such worldwide fame.

With vivid prose and intimate details, Joan Martelli details the last tumultuous years of Vincent's life and the three decades following his death as Jo struggles to be a good mother and a noble person, while also trying to find personal happiness. Jo would take on the role of dealer, publicist, and editor, and remain true to what she saw as her duty to be the Vincent's champion.

The Widow van Gogh might be set in another era, but family tensions and issues of loyalty, guilt, financial hardship, misunderstanding, loneliness, mental illness, and ambition resonate today as an all too human story and invite readers to see Vincent's life and work anew, through the loving eyes of the Widow van Gogh.