Here is a stirring view into Van Gogh's world, as intimate as sharing "poulet" and "pommes sautes" with the artist himself. Written by the former chief curator of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam with one of America's foremost culinary authorities, this unique cookbook/art book explores the role of the Auberge Ravoux cafe in Van Gogh's life.

Often consumed with business decisions and staffing issues, four-star chef Eric Rupert sometimes asks himself: "When do I get to cook?" This book is Ripert's personal quest for the answer to that question; a journey in four different seasons to four different locales to "cook the landscape" and "cook from the guts."

In the last seventy days of his life, Vincent van Gogh experienced an unprecedented burst of creativity. He painted at least one canvas per day, often more, and wrote dozens of eloquent, personal letters to family, fellow artists, and friends. For the first time, this volume gathers all that he produced during these last few months and presents it in a day-by-day chronology that reveals his intense focus on the continuing development of his signature artistic method as well as his innermost thoughts and concerns. Persuaded by his doting brother, Theo, to move to the artistic enclave of Auvers-sur-Oise in 1890 for a change of scenery and a chance at a life free from temptation, and with the intent of concentrating solely on painting and restoring his full mental health, van Gogh arrived in May just as the town and its nearby bucolic fields were bursting into full springtime glory, providing him ample material for inspiration. Stunning reproductions of his last paintings display his daily explorations of this charming hamlet’s streets and buildings, including its now-iconic church and thatched cottages, its inhabitants—including his friend and mentor Doctor Gachet, immortalized on canvas—and the wide, open fields that roused him to paint masterpieces such as Wheat Field with Crows and Landscape with a Carriage and a Train. Despite these idyllic surroundings, his encouraging pace of production, and mounting critical recognition, van Gogh chose to end his own life a mere two and a half months later, leaving the letters and paintings duplicated here as the only clues to the internal anguish that led him to an act of such desperation. The full complexity of van Gogh’s personality, emotions, and relationships is presented here through reproductions of historical documents, letters, and glorious full-color plates of over seventy paintings, each of which is also accompanied by incisive commentary from author Wouter van der Veen, a renowned van Gogh scholar. A final chapter fully explores the often overlooked role played by his sister-in-law, Johanna Bonger, in cultivating and establishing his posthumous legacy.

"After his release from the Saint-Paul asylum in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh wandered the French countryside before stumbling on the Auberge Ravoux, a quaint little inn in Auvers-sur-Oise. Although still plagued by mental illness, he found some peace there among his adoptive family, painting over 75 works of art in just three months. A 132-page color graphic novel by Jamison Odone, based on the first-hand account of Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter, with whom Vincent shared a special bond."--Back cover

A historical romance novel of love, artistry, and Vincent Van Gogh’s muse in 19th century France Summer, 1890. Van Gogh arrives at Auvers-sur-Oise, a bucolic French village that lures city artists to the country. It is here that twenty-year-old Maurguerite Gachet has grown up, attending to her father and brother ever since her mother’s death. And it is here that young Vincent Van Gogh will spend his last summer, under the care of Doctor Gachet—homeopathic doctor, dilettante painter, and collector. In these last days of his life, Van Gogh will create over 70 paintings, two of them portraits of Marguerite Gachet. But little does he know that, while capturing Marguerite and her garden on canvas, he will also capture her heart. Both a love story and historical novel, The Last Van Gogh recreates the final months of Vincent’s life—and the tragic relationship between a young girl brimming with hope and an artist teetering on despair.

As well as his fellow Impressionists -- in particular Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas and Cezanne --