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  3. The story of Vincent Van Gogh’s life is more heartbreaking, and heart-liftin

The story of Vincent Van Gogh’s life is more heartbreaking, and heart-liftin

游客2023-12-14  11
问题     The story of Vincent Van Gogh’s life is more heartbreaking, and heart-lifting, than the romantic myth that has enshrouded him for decades. It is told, in his own words and works, in the six-volume Vincent Van Gogh: The Letters, his 819 surviving letters (and the 83 addressed to him) form the core. The first letter was written when Vincent, aged 19, was a trainee at The Hague Branch of Gospel & CIA, a firm of international art dealers. Like most of the letters, it was sent to his brother, Theo, then 15. The two remained close. Theo became an art dealer and Vincent’s main source of financial and emotional support.
    Van Gogh is irascible,  engaging,  intelligent, touchy, high-minded, well read, rebellious and pigheaded. When he started dressing like a tramp he claimed it was, in part, to advertise his refusal to join polite, i. e. , hypocritical society. (Equally, it may have been because polite society was refusing to accept him. ) He was often miserable, occasionally love-struck, almost always fiercely committed to something or other and sometimes mad.
    Art and literature were his constant companions. He wrote often about what he was reading and seeing. His concern was never a book’s place in the canon or a painting’s in art history. He judged a work on what it communicated, and how. From Antwerp he wrote that the religious paintings of Rubens are "theatrical. . . But what he can do is paint a queen, a statesman, well analyzed, just as they are. " He wrote beautifully about landscapes and peasants. In time, he gave a vivid, perhaps unequalled, account of an artist making art.
    He set off at 16, a seemingly conventional young man, to make his way as a dealer first in The Hague and then, via Paris, in London. There, a prickly instability, characteristic of his childhood, re-emerged, perhaps brought on by a rebuff from his landlady’s daughter. He lost the job he had had for seven years. Other failures followed, as a preacher and a teacher.
    His religious fanaticism grew. Indeed, the letters offer a rare look at obsession from the inside. His pursuit of a young widow was so unrelenting he would be called a stalker today. But to him, her repetition of "No, nay, never!" was "a piece of ice that I press to my heart to thaw. "
    When he was 26 his fixation became art. By then he was a penniless, eccentric loner. This coincides with a year-long break in the correspondence. He had fallen out with Theo following a "discussion" about his future. When the letters resume, Vincent refers to himself as a prisoner, a caged bird. "I know I could be quite a different man!" he writes. "There’s something within me, so what is it?" Two months later he bent himself to the study of drawing and painting as others would bend to the plough. It was as if he had to labor, and metaphorically sweat, before his genius could, or was allowed to, emerge. Five years later, in the spring of 1885, came The Potato Eaters. Movingly, triumphantly, Van Gogh had broken through.
    After two years in Paris, living with Theo (only nine letters~ no images), Vincent moved to Arles in 1888. Color now floods the pages. This was the beginning of the legendary period of prodigious, radiant creativity. Yes, he cut off his ear. He also painted nearly 200 pictures, among them The Night Care and The Yellow House.
    In 1889, after a series of crack-ups (in reaction to Theo’s marriage or perhaps just too much absinthe), he spent a year in the asylum at Saint-Remy-de-Province. The work continued to pour out (about 150 paintings). Sunflowers and Irises but also Starry Night, in which viewer and artist are pulled up over the rooftops, and tumble round and round across the dark sky.
    The very last letter reproduced, addressed to Theo but unfinished, was written on July 23rd, 1890. He was staying in Auvers-sur-Oise, not far from Paris where Theo lived with his wife and child. The note was found in Vincent’s pocket after he shot himself. He died, aged 37,on July 27th.
    Fifteen years were devoted to this publication. The Dutch, English and French editions are the joint project of the Huygens Institute and Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. Letters and illustrations fill five books; the sixth has commentaries, maps and indexes.
    This is not the first attempt to publish the complete letters but it is the best. There were editions in 1914; an expanded version appeared in English in 1958; 20 newly discovered letters were added for the 1990 Dutch centenary edition. Now the letters have been retranslated, comprehensively annotated and there are 20 new items.
    But what really sets this edition apart from, and above, all others are the illustrations. Sketches are embedded in many of Van Gogh’s letters; the drawings and "scratches" he sometimes tucked into envelopes before posting are reproduced. So are thumbnail illustrations of every work the artist mentions (whether by himself or by others) plus larger reproductions of paintings based on these letter sketches. [br] What makes this version titled Vincent Van Gogh : The Letters different from the previous ones?
选项 A、The last letter addressed to Theo was unfinished and found after Van Gogh committed suicide.
B、It’s not only the first but also the best attempt to publish the complete letters of Van Gogh.
C、Letters in this version are accompanied by illustrations such as sketches and drawings by Van Gogh.
D、This version has been annotated and upgraded with twenty new items.
答案 C
解析 细节题。题干“名为Vincent Van Gogh Letters版本的信件与其他以前出版版本的不同之处在于哪一点?”选项[C]“这一版本中的信件附有梵高所作的素描等插图”，原文最后一段首句为解题线索：“But what really sets this edition apart from，and above all others are the illustrations．Sketches…；the drawings and ‘scratches’…”，由此可见真正使这一版与其他版本相区别的就是插图，故为答案。选项[A]“最后一封写给Theo的信没有写完，是在梵高自杀后发现的”，这是事实，但不符合题意，因为这只是这封信本身的信息，且在以前的版本也都收录了这封信，故不能用于区分各个版本，予以排除；选项[B]“这不仅是梵高全部信件出版的第一次，也是最好的一次”，而原文倒数第二段首句“This is not the first attempt to publish the complete letters but it is the best”指出“虽不是第一次却是最好的一次”，故选项是将转折关系偷换成了并列关系，予以排除；选项[D]“这一版本有注释，且新增了20个新条目”，回文到倒数第二段，这的确是属于新版本信件的特点，但文中并未指出这一特点使得此版本与其他版本区分开来，且此段也指出每次出版都有新增和修订，所以这不是这一版本独有的特点，故排除。
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