ABSTRACT
The power and passion of the art of Vincent van Gogh is familiar to all art lovers. One cannot view his paintings, especially his paintings of women, without a sense of the intensity and passion he poured into these depictions. The analytic mind comes away from such works pondering what depths of feeling and libidinal charge lay behind such efforts to probe the character and existence of the women in his world. In Vincent’s case, we have the benefit of a wealth of material he provided us to further our quest. In addition to his artistic productions—the proliferation of paintings and drawings that he produced in the ten short years of his artistic career—he left behind a body of letters numbering in the hundreds—primarily to his brother Theo, but also to other family members and friends. 1 The letters constitute a unique body of intimate self-reflection and revelation, in which Vincent poured out the anguish, self-doubt, and fierce desire encompassing his heart and mind.
