Vincent van Gogh Van Gogh's fame reached its first peak in Austria and Germany before World War I, helped by the publication of his letters in three volumes in 1914. His letters are expressive and literate, and have been described as among the foremost 19th-century writings of their kind. These began a compelling mythology of Van Gogh as an intense and dedicated painter who suffered for his art and died young. In 1934, the novelist Irving Stone wrote a biographical novel of Van Gogh's life titled "Lust for Life", based on Van Gogh's letters to Theo. This novel and the 1956 film further
Portraits of Vincent van Gogh show the artist's head from the left, i.e. the side with non-mutilated ear. Van Gogh made no self-portraits in Auvers-sur-Oise, during the final weeks of his life. In Nazi Germany, Vincent van Gogh paintings were among those labelled "degenerate art". Works were stolen and/or destroyed by German authorities including the self-portrait dedicated to Paul Gauguin, September 1888, depicted in the black and white picture. Almost at the same time as when his "Catalogue raisonné" was published, Jacob Baart de la Faille had to admit that he had included paintings emerging from dubious sources, and of dubious quality. Shortly after, in