“I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream.” The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters

"The duty of the painter is to study nature in depth and to use all his intelligence, to put his feelings into his work so that it becomes comprehensible to others," Vincent wrote to his brother Theo.

I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Royal Academy of Arts in London just before jetting off abroad for the Easter holidays. I'm so glad I did as I ended up being stranded in Cyprus and would have missed this fascinating Van Gogh exhibition altogether.

Over 35 original letters reveal how Vincent Van Gogh was a highly intelligent, impassioned and gifted letter writer. His fascinating letters, rarely exhibited to the public due to their fragility, were displayed together with 65 paintings and 30 drawings and they show how Van Gogh painted his thoughts, hopes and dreams onto canvas. He was an intelligent, passionate reader with a vast knowledge of art and literature, who read fluently in Dutch, English, French and German. His art was the all-consuming subject of his correspondence.