Books appear in at least 15 of his paintings and drawings, showing just how much they meant to him — not just as props or symbols, but as genuine sources of comfort, insight, and creative energy. For Vincent, reading wasn’t separate from art. It was art.
[Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux (1888–1889) by Vincent Van Gogh.]
As he once wrote in a letter to his brother Theo:
“Books and reality and art are the same kind of things for me.”
(11 February 1883)
Vincent adored the works of Charles Dickens. He read and reread them throughout his life. A Christmas Carol and The Haunted Man were particular favourites. He admired Dickens’s compassion and moral clarity — qualities Van Gogh tried to capture in both his painting and his own daily life.
Other favourites included:
-
Jules Michelet, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet and Guy de Maupassant
-
Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Bunyan
-
The poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Keats
-
Honoré de Balzac and William Shakespeare
It’s an eclectic and heartfelt list — rich in realism, emotion, and moral imagination. Much like his art.
If you haven’t read The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh (Penguin Classics), it’s absolutely worth adding to your list. In hundreds of letters — many of them written to his brother — Vincent not only reflected on his art and daily struggles, but also on the books he was reading at the time.
The letters are thoughtful, warm, and deeply human. His reading choices reflect a mind in motion: curious, sincere, and full of feeling.
We created our Van Gogh-inspired collection as a quiet nod to all of this — to the colours, the brushwork, and the interior world of a man who painted what he felt and read what he needed. For fellow readers and art lovers, it’s a small way to honour the connection between literature and visual art — something Vincent understood better than most.
Here's our Vincent Van Gogh reading list over on bookshop.org.
