Translator's Note

Chapter 1: The Bird in the Cage

Be amazed | Life is a precious thing to be cherished | A bird in a cage

Chapter 2: I Can't Live Without Love

Wrestling with Nature: The Taming of the Shrew | I Fall in Love with Kay | A Bitter Love | I Can't Live Without Love

Chapter 3: The Silent Fight

I want to ask you a favor | Immerse yourself in practice | No time for regrets | Feel the strength within me | Drawing humans | I cannot do works for the sake of interest | Caring for an abandoned woman | Capturing the struggles of life | My lover, Sien | Sien's birth | Paintings that move people | A quiet fight | The artist's duty | The power of vibrant colors | The happiness of painting in oil | The emotion that nature gives | The landscape spoke to me | The meaning of the lottery | The rules of life and art | Wanting more, losing everything | Paintings I really want to paint | Debt owed to the world

Chapter 4: The Painter Is Not Afraid of the Canvas

It will happen again | The joy of painting | I am a dog | My savagery | The tradability of my paintings | Art, what springs from the human soul | The margins of life | Millet, the father of the young painter | The Potato Eaters, a true rural painting | What should modern portraiture pursue? | The painter is not afraid of the canvas.

Chapter 5: Colors Filled with Life

The Human Eye | What I Long For | To Paint a Figure Rising from Paint | Meet at the Louvre | An Uncertain Future | Colors Filled with Life | Enjoy Yourself

Chapter 6 I Will Give You My Soul

Without my brother, I feel empty | A concept for a community of artists | Everyone seems unfamiliar | There's no choice but to strike while the iron is hot | People, the root of everything | Patience and persistence are necessary | The value of my paintings | This world is God's failure | If I were to live with Gauguin | I need a friend to be with | The power of color in paintings | The Sower, a longing for the eternal | Art is for artists | Paintings are not photographs | The art of eternal life | A painting drawn in a hurry | The night sky that makes me dream | Painting is hard work | I have nothing but paintings | The more tired and in pain I am | My family and country become more attractive in my imagination | Like stars floating in the blue sky | Following the passion that dominates me | A large sunflower | An era where effort doesn't work | Hoping to show something through color | A space of destruction and madness, a night café | Drawing interesting nights | An empty wallet | Revenge for 'forced rest' | May your burden be lightened even a little | May my brother live without any worries | You will triumph someday | It's fortunate I'm not alone | Conflict with Gauguin | Wonderful world, there was no malice | Don't worry, Theo | Two empty chairs | Don't forget that we will always be friends | I will give you my soul | A neighbor's petition | I want to go to a nursing home | Find another way | I want to protect myself | My brother's misfortune will surely end | I want to join the Foreign Legion

Chapter 7: Pain is Stronger Than Madness

I am so unrealistic | I received my brother's wonderful works | My fear of madness is disappearing | I see the power of intense colors | The cypress tree that captivates my heart | How to face pain without resentment | I invited many people to see the T-shaped paintings | Do not lose heart | Without courage or hope | To recover, you must paint | Exhibition of "Irises" and "Starry Night" | Images of death | A terrible longing | Paintings that speak to simple people | Paintings of a bedroom that seem to show a bouquet of flowers | A painter, a man absorbed in what is visible | Relapse after a year | My brother will surely succeed while he is alive | I will call my son Vincent | My evaluation | I try to have hope | The essence of the Salon des Independants | My brother is succeeding | If only I could ease his pain | After the moment of pain | I want to leave this place | Pain is stronger than madness

Chapter 8: A Man Who Can Speak Only Through Pictures

Dr. Gachet | Painting, the only link between past and present | Your and my joint work | The intriguing relationship between disparate fragments | Extreme loneliness and sadness | Painters in a corner | A man who can only speak through painting

“If we don’t have the courage to try something,
“What on earth is the meaning of life?”

Even in poverty, loneliness, mental illness and artistic agony,
Van Gogh's heart, which continued to move forward toward its dreams without stopping.

Vincent van Gogh is considered the most beloved painter in our country.
But how much do we, who are moved by “Starry Night” and “Sunflowers,” know about Van Gogh?
A painter who was not recognized while he was alive, a man who cut off his own ear, a young man who ended his life by suicide in his 30s.
A mad genius, a gifted artist, an unfortunate creator.
If we only know this much, we still don't really know Van Gogh.

"Van Gogh, Letters of the Soul" is a book that compiles, in chronological order, over 900 letters he exchanged with acquaintances during his lifetime, revealing the truth about his life and work, as well as his human side.
In Van Gogh's letters, we can get a clear glimpse into the state of mind with which he painted after finally finding his dream as an artist, the joys and sorrows he faced, and, above all, the kind of person he was.
The book also includes letters from his brother Theo, with whom he exchanged the most letters, which allows us to understand Van Gogh more deeply.


“Even if you fail repeatedly, you must find the strength and courage to try again.”
Van Gogh's words reveal the truth beyond the painting.

They say that these days, there are people who lie even in their diaries.
However, Van Gogh also revealed his inner thoughts very honestly in letters to others.
He confesses that although he regrets his lack of skill when he begins to paint in oil, he is still very happy, and that he sees the grandeur of the ocean in a poor, shabby person like a farmer.
He asks Theo, "Why don't my paintings sell?" and, despite this, he vows not to paint for money.
Although he showed signs of mental instability while in the nursing home, he was more delighted than anything else when he heard the news of his nephew's birth.
Until he died holding a letter in his arms that he had not been able to send because he was so depressed, letters were a tool for Van Gogh to fully express his feelings and a window to communicate with the world.


So, as you read through “Van Gogh, Letters from the Soul,” you will feel as if you are living in the same era as Van Gogh.
The image of a poor, unfinished artist striving to be recognized by the world without losing hope despite all the hardships and frustrations is vividly depicted.
Rather than a genius painter with a dramatic life story, we see a young man who grumbles that "it seems like an era where effort doesn't work," but who, unwaveringly, repeatedly says, "I'll give it my all" and "I'll try," striving to achieve his dream.


Van Gogh sent a letter to his fellow artist Bernard asking, "When will I be able to paint the starry sky that I always dream about?" and three months later, he completed his famous "Starry Night."
He was a man who was not afraid, had the courage to go forward and get what he wanted.


“I put my name in a striking red color on the sea painting.”
A 25th anniversary revised edition that enhances existing illustrations with high-definition quality and adds many famous works.

“Van Gogh, Letters of the Soul” is the first book to introduce Van Gogh’s letters to Korean readers.
It has been consistently loved by 300,000 readers since 1999, and its greatest appeal is that you can read the actual writings of Van Gogh and be moved by seeing the works he described in his letters and the paintings he created during that period together.
This revised edition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of its publication, features a new cover and groundbreaking illustrations.


The most striking thing is that you can see Van Gogh's works included in the book more clearly.
We replaced all existing images with high-resolution ones, and added the pleasure of viewing them in larger sizes than before.
Additionally, we have included some of Van Gogh's famous paintings that were not previously available.
In "Seascape at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer," we can see that Van Gogh told Theo that he "put his name in red on the sea painting," and we can also see paintings that imitated Mille and Rembrandt, whom Van Gogh admired in his letters.


Van Gogh spoke about his work in relatively specific detail in his letters, and sometimes sent sketches along with his letters.
From sketches he made before becoming a professional artist, to the only painting he sold while he was alive, “The Red Vineyard,” “Café Terrace at Night,” which captures the night without using black, and “Almond Tree in Blossom,” which he painted to celebrate the birth of his nephew, many of Van Gogh’s representative works will be revived with a completely different emotion after reading his writings.