Vincent van Gogh: Matters of Identity

Sobre el libro Vincent van Gogh: Matters of Identity de publicado por Yale University Press en 2021:

In 2018, forensic scientists discovered that one of only two photographs of Van Gogh was actually not Vincent at all, but Theo, his brother. The revelation served as the impetus for this book, whose narrative moves from a misidentified face to questions about the authenticity of artwork. Yves Vasseur takes the reader on a novelesque detective story about revised art history. From the photo of the wrong Van Gogh brother, Vasseur’s narrative continues to Samuel Delsaut, who found two drawings attributed to Van Gogh in 1958. The Delsaut family archives revealed doubts about the authenticity of the drawings, as well as many letters between Samuel’s son and the son of Dr. Paul Gachet, who looked after Van Gogh at the Auvers-sur-Oise commune. Featuring reproduced illustrations of Van Gogh’s artwork, this fascinating book gives the reader a lesson in historical criticism and examines the ways in which we distinguish information from rumour and propaganda.