Lust for Life (film) scheme, noting the design team "consciously made the flow of color and the interplay of compositions and hues the most forceful devices for conveying a motion picture comprehension of van Gogh." "Variety" said, "This is a slow-moving picture whose only action is in the dialog itself. Basically a faithful portrait of Van Gogh, "Lust for Life" is nonetheless unexciting. It misses out in conveying the color and entertainment of the original Irving Stone novel." "Harrison's Reports" wrote that the film had been given "an excellent production" and that "Kirk Douglas does outstanding work as Van Gogh, and Anthony Quinn is
Vincent van Gogh an important but tragic painter, whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. The most comprehensive primary source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts and theories of art, are recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from 1872 until 1890. Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincent's letters to him; Vincent kept few