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Vincent's Women: The Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent van Gogh

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Pub Date 26 Mar 2024 | Archive Date 29 Feb 2024

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Description

Bestselling author (Gilded Summers) Donna Russo’s Vincent’s Women is the untold story of Vincent's loves: how they shaped his life, his art, and his death. It writes against the ‘myths,’ exploring the possibility that none of them are true. It is the only novel to bring into question his sexuality, how he lost his ear, who he lost it for, and how he might have died, all through the eyes of a woman. We learn of Her; we learn all of it through Her.

The story is guided by Johanna van Gogh Bonger, Vincent's sister-in-law, as she decides to reveal the truth about Vincent to her son. She then takes the reader on a journey through Vincent's life, each section bringing a pivotal moment of Vincent's life alive while revealing the part ‘She’ played in bringing it about. Between each woman, our guide, Johanna, gives us the transitional periods, right up to his death, which is now in question. Hundreds of the nearly thousand letters between Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo, now considered one of the greatest documents of the human experience, were used to help construct this novel, its narrative, and dialogue, especially the dialogue of Vincent himself.

Vincent van Gogh is one of the most well-known artists of all time. The world knows of his madness, traumas, and suicide. But what if all that we know isn’t true? What if this knowledge is based on rumors and nothing more? What if his true story is vastly different when based on factual material and forensic information? What if the truth of Vincent’s life—his madness and his genius—is defined by his never-ending search for love?


Bestselling author (Gilded Summers) Donna Russo’s Vincent’s Women is the untold story of Vincent's loves: how they shaped his life, his art, and his death. It writes against the ‘myths,’ exploring...


A Note From the Publisher
“Readers will love some of these women; others they’ll love to hate,” the author confirms. “In either case, the incredible stories of these women, untold until now, the incredible influence they had on Vincent, and their own remarkable lives, is a story I felt I had to tell, one that needed to be told.”

“Readers will love some of these women; others they’ll love to hate,” the author confirms. “In either case, the incredible stories of these women, untold until now, the incredible influence they had...


Advance Praise

"Vincent's Women: The Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent van Gogh represents historical fiction at its best by melding the myths and facts of the artist's life with a dramatic biographical inspection that explores underlying truths about the pivotal moments of Vincent's life.

Narrated by Johanna van Gogh Bonger (Vincent's sister-in-law), it translates to fiction the hundreds (out of nearly thousands) of letters between Vincent and his brother Theo, adding the value of Johanna van Gogh-Bonger’s diaries and correspondence with Theo van Gogh, along with the journals and memoir of Paul Gauguin. This triangle of factual writings results in a dialogue of discoveries and insights which will prove especially attractive to art collections that include fictional representations of artists alongside nonfiction surveys.

General-interest readers who have some basic familiarity with von Gogh's mystique and legends will also find Vincent's Women compelling. The story addresses many questions about his life, from his missing ear to his madness and suicide.

The opening, however, comes in 1924 from a narrator who confesses, on her deathbed, facts about her life that affected its course, art, and insights. Perhaps this is an unfair time to reveal such truths to her son—but it also is likely the last and perfect time, creating a completely compelling confessional tone that draws readers into the questions and answers not just about von Gogh's life, but the motivations of those around him.

Her evocative voice drives a series of events that conclude in revelations and surprises driven by an article published in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology in Dec. 2020 that postulated the logic in this story and about Vincent's death.

Donna Russo excels in vivid descriptions of these pivotal points in Vincent's life. These drive the fact-based story in a manner that explains, explores, and provides powerful insights into the artist's self-destructive impulses and actions and how they were perceived and interpreted by those around him.

The result is a multifaceted exploration of von Gogh's artistry, insanity, and relationships that examines personal perspectives in a unique manner designed to attract both arts readers and those who hold only a cursory knowledge of the times and von Gogh's life and creations.

Backed by solid research and driven by the devices of fictional drama and dialogue, Vincent's Women is especially highly recommended for art libraries that may not usually contain fictional works, but which will find Russo's scholarship and the marriage between it and embellished drama to be astute, thought-provoking, and revealing.”

 --Midwest Book Review (D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer)

"A radiant and compelling novel of the painter Vincent van Gogh told by the women who knew him through his brief, often troubled, and sometimes joyful life. Each woman, from a cousin, a prostitute, an elderly nun, his devoted sister-in-law, and even his difficult mother, loved him in different ways. I kept hoping in turn that each would be the one to save him from his always returning darkness. Donna Russo Morin writes as lyrically and perceptively as a van Gogh painting, making me fall in love with his work all over again, this painter who 'had the beauty of the world in him.' One of the most wonderful books about an artist I have ever read.

--Stephanie Cowell

Author of Claude and Camille: a novel of Monet, and Marrying Mozart. Recipient American Book Award.


Vincent's Women: The Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent van Gogh by Donna Russo is a historical fiction novel narrated by Johanna Bonger van Gogh, sister-in-law of Vincent van Gogh, to her son, Willem. Johanna describes London from 1873 to 1874, when Vincent admired housemate Eugenie Loyer, sparking his passion for art. Johanna reflects on Vincent's life, his unrequited love, different professions, and inner struggles. In various episodes, Johanna describes Vincent's relationships with Kee Stricker Vos, Sien, and Margot Begemann as emotional drivers on his artistic journey. She explores his time in Paris, his partnership with Gauguin, and the pivotal ear-severing incident. Sister Epiphany at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum is a crucial support, after which his connection with Marguerite Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise provides respite from his mental anguish until his tragic suicide.

Living in Europe, I have seen plenty of Vincent van Gogh's work, although I admit that aside from the ear severing and suicide, there was nothing more I knew of his actual life. As a feminist, I love books that dig deeper into eras when men wrote their own history and largely left women out of it. Donna Russo does an exceptional job in sussing out the women who had a significant impact on the artist's famous work in Vincent's Women. I think it is important to clarify that love is not just romantic, and romantic love is not always the most transformative. In this regard, the woman who stood out to me in Russo's exhaustively researched and wonderfully written book is Sister Epiphany. If I had to pick one woman from the line-up to spend time with, she would be the one. It's hard not to feel sorry for the women Vincent, for lack of a better term, abandoned. That said, Russo breathes life back into their roles in van Gogh's evolution. The writing and dialogue are all so well done, and the use of a fictional narrative makes it all feel authentic. Very highly recommended.

--Readers' Favorites, 5-star review


With the dazzling color of a van Gogh canvas, Vincent’s Women brings the artist to vivid life. Russo cleverly reveals the man through the eyes of the women who shaped him and his work, while challenging commonly held notions about his legend. I was left with an even greater appreciation of his art and with a deep respect for Russo’s research and writing. A powerful and satisfying read.

--Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure

"Vincent's Women: The Untold Story of the Loves of Vincent van Gogh represents historical fiction at its best by melding the myths and facts of the artist's life with a dramatic biographical...


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ISBN 9784824185778
PRICE US$5.99 (USD)
PAGES 453

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