The first in-depth investigation of Gauguin's portraits, revealing how the artist expanded the possibilities of the genre in new and exciting ways Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in his portraits, a genre he remained engaged with throughout all phases of his career. Bringing together more than 60 of Gauguin's portraits in a wide variety of media that includes painting, works on paper, and sculpture, this handsomely illustrated volume is the first focused investigation of the multifaceted ways the artist approached the subject. Essays by a group of international experts consider how the artist's conception of portraiture evolved as he moved between Brittany and Polynesia. They also examine how Gauguin infused his work with symbolic meaning by taking on different roles like the Christ figure and the savage in his self-portraits and by placing his models in suggestive settings with alluring attributes. This welcome addition to the scholarship on one of the 19th century's most innovative and controversial artists reveals fascinating insights into the crucial role that portraiture played in Gauguin's overall artistic practice.

Vincent van Gogh explores the life and work of the troubled artistic genius, brought close to the brink of madness, who left one of the most startling artistic legacies of the late nineteenth century when, in 1890, he took his own life. It follows the path that led him from his early attempts to forge a career, via his initial foray into the world of art during which he produced his famous earthy portrayals of Dutch peasants, such as The Potato Eaters, to the inspiration of colour and new styles that he discovered in Paris, to the sunlight of Provence with its fierce blues and yellows, and his final days in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Gloriously illustrated with such classics as his favourite Sunflowers, Starry Night and his self-portraits, it also contains rare documents such as van Gogh's letters to his brother and sister, the medical analysis of his illness and the announcement card of the artist's death in 1890.

A breath-taking masterpiece Cincinnati Art Museum's Undergrowth with Two Figures, is one of the twelve ambitious panoramic landscapes Vincent van Gogh created during the last, highly productive, weeks of his life in the summer of 1890, whilst staying at Auvers, just north of Paris. It has recently been restored and now provides the focus and the springboard for this book. Nine works by Van Gogh and a further fourteen by his contemporaries, including Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Paul Cezanne, reveal how all of these artists attempted to capture the subtle and transient effects of light on foliage and the feeling of walking under the forest canopy, the "sous-bois".