Release Blitz // Vincent Van Gogh: The Ambiguity of Insanity by Giuseppe Cafiero

Vincent Van Gogh: The Ambiguity of Insanity Book Cover Vincent Van Gogh: The Ambiguity of Insanity
Giuseppe Cafiero
February 11, 2019
Enchanted Book Tours

An abrasive itinerary of the presence of women, the landscape and obsession. Such are the internal paradigms that went through the compelling life of the Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. 

Not flesh and blood women, but the woman as a guide: Mrs. Jones, the woman as a mother; Kee Vos; Christine Hoornik of Siena; Margot Begemann. The Portrait-women such as Augustine Roulin and Madame Ginoux. And then the backgrounds, endless, unforgettable in this genius's works: Isleworth, Amsterdam, le Borinage, Arles, St. Remy, Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh spent his life trying to capture the colors, the atmosphere, the light.

The pain of finitude and his obsession with achieving redemption through art, with intimate and stormy religiosity, with brotherly love, with the French noon sun and, in short, with death. A hard-working and unwavering life where art interacted, in a painful gesture, with the iron will of a hand that never lost its way.

The life of a beloved and devoted man, silenced by the anguish and despair of creation, who could only find peacefulness when he found his own death.

Vincent Van Gogh: the Ambiguity of Insanity is a fictionalized biography and gripping novel of the life of the Nineteenth-Century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. The author, Giuseppe Cafiero, draws a psychological portrait of the Post-Impressionist painter through the women that marked his life and the cities in which he lived. 


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A Stroke of Genius: Three Reasons Why van Gogh Was a Genius Despite his Mental Illness – Not Because of It

By Giuseppe Cafiero


Some observers argue that Vincent van Gogh’s madness was inseparable from his artistic genius – that his madness reflected his emotional instability or, at the least, was influenced by it. But I believe that van Gogh’s art was not driven by madness but crippled by it; it was perhaps even a positive product of his mental health. Van Gogh painted not because of his mental health but in spite of it. It was a form of catharsis that offered him hope and escape in equal measure.



He Inspired Expressionism

To some large degree, van Gogh singlehandedly inspired the expressionist movement. His unique painting style and visionary approach to what was previously a staid practice was revolutionary.

He only painted when he was in control

Some wrongly believe that van Gogh painted in a manic frenzy. But in fact, the truth is that van Gogh painted only when he was in control of his mental state. While his mental health certainly influenced his choice of scene, setting and subject – and his own self-portraits – his art and madness are only really linked because of the part both played on his colourful life.

He checked himself into rehab?

It has been reported that van Gogh was sectioned and sent to a mad house. But van Gogh voluntarily checked himself into a 19th-century form of rehab (then known as an asylum). It is my view that van Gogh understood the consequences of his psychotic episodes and went to great lengths to understand and control them as best he could.


Vincent Van Gogh: the Ambiguity of Insanity by Giuseppe Cafiero is out now as an audiobook on Amazon, Audible.com and iTunes