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 by Vincent van Gogh shown hanging to the left of the portrait of Paul-Eugène Milliet. Arranged this way, both portraits may have formed part of the "Décoration for the Yellow House". When Eugène Boch died in 1941, he bequeathed "The Poet" (that is Van Gogh's title for his portrait of Eugène Boch, which Boch received from Johanna van Gogh-Bonger as a present in July 1891) to the Louvre. "Portrait of the Artist's Mother" is a painting Vincent van Gogh made in 1888 of his mother, Anna Carbentus van Gogh, from a black-and-white photograph. In September 1888, Van Gogh, answering to a letter of his