Van Gogh (172 page)

We want to thank Robert and Elizabeth Kashey, David Wojciechowski, and Joseph Gibbon of the Shepherd Gallery in New York who taught us so much about the world of nineteenth-century art that Vincent both cherished and transcended. Dr. Gregory Greco, a surgeon and close friend, spoke with us at length about both the ear incident and Vincent’s fatal wound, making it possible to better reconstruct the medical aspects of these incidents from the spare written record. Joseph Hartzler and Brad Brian, two prominent attorneys and friends whom we have known for decades (and, respectively, a prosecutor and a defense attorney), reviewed drafts of the “Note on Vincent’s Wounding” and provided extremely wise counsel on a subject of historical sensitivity as well as evidentiary complexity.

One of the greatest challenges of researching this book was that neither of us reads Dutch. In the end, we were able to bridge that gap through the extraordinary efforts of eleven translators: Keimpe Andringa, Casandra Berkich, Jan Christianen, Isabel Daems, Frank Gabel, Pragito von Bannisseht, Nolly Nijenhuis, Huub van Oirschot, Mel Oppermann, Jan Sawyer, and Inge De Taeye. Thanks to their skills and dedication, we were able to absorb the vast literature of Dutch primary and secondary sources that had not previously been translated into English. In particular, we want to thank our primary translators Pim Andringa and Inge De Taeye for the hours they spent poring over books, articles, and other sources with us to determine what materials should be translated. For translations from German, we have Adrian Godfrey to thank. Although we can read French passably well, we had occasion to call on the services of French translators Jean-Pascal Bozso, Peter Field, Catherine Merlen, Christian Quilliot, and Karen Stokes where the original was difficult (e.g., archaic) or a formal translation was required. (All our translations will be made available through the Van Gogh Museum Archives.)

We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the team of researchers and fact-checkers who made it possible to assemble what could well be the most extensive notes that have ever accompanied a biography. The team was led by the brilliantly capable Elizabeth Petit and her gifted colleague, Beth Fadeley. They were assisted by Kristin Barron, Brad Petit, Laura Storey, Ernest Wiggins, and Renée Zeide, all of whom worked with us through the two-year-long process of preparing the notes for online publication. Also of assistance were De’Andrea Youmans and Daniel Lutz. Despite our location far from a major research library, we were able to borrow books and articles from around the world thanks to the miracle of the inter-library loan program and the good offices of Bridget Smith, librarian at the University of South Carolina—Aiken.

At the inception of this project, surveying the scale of the enterprise we were undertaking, we commissioned special research-management software that mimicked the research methods we had used for all our previous books. This special application—which allowed us to digitize the library of source materials, create digital “index cards,” and then organize those cards into an interactive outline—was built for us by Stephen Geddes and Jeremy Hughes, with help from Phillip Greer and Keith Beckman. The task of combining references, textual notes, illustrations, and photographs into a single, seamless website at the other end of the process was managed by Jeremy Hughes, Elizabeth Petit, and Beth Fadeley, with the assistance of Dr. Jennifer Guiliano of the Center for Digital Humanities at the University of South Carolina together with Jun Zhou, Aidan Zanders, and Shawn Maybay. This extraordinary technology allowed us to assimilate and access more than ten times the information available for our biography of Jackson Pollock, and compressed what might easily have been a thirty-year project into a mere decade.

That time-saving turned out to be more important than we ever imagined. The writing of this book was repeatedly interrupted by medical exigencies. There were times when it looked as if Greg might not make it to the finish line of our ten-year odyssey. An intractable brain tumor took him out from behind his computer for great stretches of uncertainty. Our research on Van Gogh began while we were at UCLA for a two-month session of radiation. As Vincent’s meteoric career arced over us, we passed through major brain surgery, kidney surgery, and a program of receptor-mediated radiation therapy. Vincent died just as we were undergoing a series of cutting-edge chemotherapeutic regimens. Without the contributions of all these doctors, and others, this book would not have been written. We want to express our unnameable gratitude especially to Drs.
James Vredenburgh and Michael Morse of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center, and to Drs. Francis DiBona and Davor Sklizovic in our hometown of Aiken.

Our thanks also go to our remarkable agent at William Morris Endeavor, Mel Berger, who provided us with strong, patient support through this long effort.

Finally, in almost three decades of writing books, we have literally never had as much support from all levels of a publishing house as we have had at Random House. Our editor, Susanna Porter, has tolerated our delays, shaped our manuscript, and shepherded our book through the complicated publishing process with an enthusiasm, grace, and wonderful intelligence that will leave us always in her debt. The managing editorial team of Vincent La Scala, Benjamin Dreyer, and Rebecca Berlant, working with copy editor Emily DeHuff, brought a remarkable clarity and consistency to a vast and rangy manuscript. Art director Robbin Schiff and designers Anna Bauer (jacket) and Barbara Bach-man (interior) created the elegant book that Van Gogh has always deserved and we had always hoped for. Then the production team of Sandra Sjursen and Lisa Feuer turned their vision into reality, and Ken Wohlrob gave it digital life. Meanwhile, marketing director Avideh Bashirrad and director of publicity Sally Marvin worked miracles to bring the product of all our labors to the attention of the public. From our editor’s diligent assistant Priyanka Krishnan to our publishers Tom Perry, Susan Kamil, and Gina Centrello—all these people and more have participated significantly in the vast collaboration that is the book you hold in your hand.

View of the Sea at Scheveningen
, A
UGUST 1882, OIL ON CANVAS, 13 ⅝ × 20 IN
.
(photo credit i1.1)

Two Women in the Moor
, O
CTOBER 1883, OIL ON CANVAS, 10 ⅝ × 13 ⅞ IN
.
(photo credit i1.2)

Head of a Woman
, M
ARCH 1885, OIL ON CANVAS, 16⅞ × 13⅛ IN.
.
(photo credit i1.3)

The Potato Eaters
, A
PRIL-MAY 1885, OIL ON CANVAS, 32 ⅜ × 44 ⅞ IN
.
(photo credit i1.4)

The Old Church Tower at Nuenen (“The Peasants’ Churchyard”)
, M
AY–JUNE 1885, OIL ON CANVAS, 25 ⅝ × 34 ⅝ IN
.
(photo credit i1.5)

Basket of Potatoes
, S
EPTEMBER 1885, OIL ON CANVAS, 17 ½ × 23 ⅝ IN
.
(photo credit i1.6)

Still Life with Bible
, O
CTOBER 1885, OIL ON CANVAS, 25 ⅝ 30 ¾ IN
.
(photo credit i1.7)