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
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh more about his techniques, his use of color, and his theories. Van Gogh was an avid reader, and his letters reflect his literary pursuits as well as a uniquely authentic literary style. His writing style in the letters reflects the literature he read and valued: Balzac, historians such as Michelet, and naturalists such as Zola, Voltaire and Flaubert. Additionally he read novels written by George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Keats' poetry, reading mostly at night when the light was too poor for painting. Gauguin told him "that he read too much". Van Gogh scholar Jan Hulsker wrote of van