In the Brabant footsteps of Van Gogh
What did Brabant look like when Vincent van Gogh drew and painted it between 1866 and 1885? Ronald Peeters and Emy Thorissen turned it into a fine looking book: 'In the Brabant footsteps of Vincent van Gogh'. The subtitle reads: 'Landscape, peasant life and home weavers photographed from 1865 - 1920'.
The book was presented Friday afternoon to the King's Commissioner for North Brabant, Wim van de Donk. He writes in the introduction:
"Vincent was an artist," I once wrote in the bid book for the Van Gogh National Park. Not only the painter, the unsung genius of his time, but also a virtuoso writer. He also bared his soul in his letters. His struggle with art, with people, the misunderstanding. However, there is a theme that recurs again and again: Brabant and the Brabanders. That Brabant, the Brabant countryside with moors, streams, forests and fens, it has not been lost or ground down by time.
There is more than those memories of Vincent, tangible in the Van Gogh National Park, recently established. There are testimonials preserved in pictures and on paper. Photographs that show how accurately Vincent looked at his surroundings, the Brabant of the time.
In this beautiful and important book, Vincent's words come together with those images of his time. Vincent is thus our guide through his Brabant. Our Brabant, because that is where the challenge lies, to preserve that Brabant of Vincent with all his 'lieux mémoires' for the future and to deal with change.
In the Brabant footsteps of Vincent van Gogh is a glimpse into a past that is forever past and which, despite everything, remains tangible. In Vincent's words and paintings, in the Van Gogh National Park and of course, in this book!"
In the Brabant footsteps of Vincent van Gogh. Publisher Gianotten Tilburg, Price € 24.95.