Now Out: Portrait of an Artist-Vincent Van Gogh (Brownridge)

This book is part of a series on artists. I have read the one on Frida Kahlo, which was well done, and now there is an entry of Van Gogh. This short book does an excellent job of telling the story of Van Gogh’s life and work. Young readers will learn about Vincent’s struggle to find what he wanted to do; for example, they will read that Van Gogh was a minister for a time before becoming an artist. Van Gogh’s mental health issues are included in an honest, but not too detailed, way. Readers will also learn about Van Gogh’s brother Theo and his relationship with Paul Gauguin. And of course, there is the art! The illustrations are vibrant and many of the artist’s works are found on these pages. This book should be a welcome entry for a school collection on artists for young readers.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher

Portrait of an Artist: Vincent van Gogh


Vincent started painting new friends he had made in Paris, including art dealers and other artists. One of his new friends was a painter called Paul Gauguin. Paul had also given up his old job to become an artist.	Vincent made paintings of the house and the bedroom and everything he saw. But Vincent started acting unpredictably and his paintings became more and more frantic. He started painting manically. He couldn’t stop and over the next few years he made nearly two thousand works of art.	Vincent knew that hurting himself wasn’t a good response to being upset with Paul, so he took himself to hospital to get better. While he was there he comforted himself by painting the view from his bedroom window. In his diary, he wrote that the stars made him dream and he thought that the night sky looked more alive than in the day.

Vincent took himself for very long walks.

He was overwhelmed by the beauty in the swirling leaves on the trees and the warm orange colors of the fields. He felt as though couldn’t get enough of the world around him and he couldn’t paint it fast enough.

Sometimes he gathered flowers from his walks, and from their beautiful garden paintings

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