Draws on newly available primary sources to present an in-depth, accessible profile that offers revisionist assessments of the influential artist's turbulent life and genius works.

A fanatic heart -- The early years, 1853-1880. Dams and dikes ; An outpost on the heath ; A strange boy ; God and money ; The road to Rijswijk ; The exile ; Imitation of Christ ; Pilgrim's progress ; O Jerusalem, o Zundert ; Head to the wind "Dat is het" ; The black country ; The land of pictures -- The Dutch years, 1880-1886. Hearts of ice ; Aimer encore ; A draftsman's fist ; My little window ; Orphan man ; Jacob and Esau ; Castles in the air ; The prisoner ; La joie de vivre ; The waternix ; A grain of madness ; In one rush ; Lost illusions --The French years, 1886-1890. Against the grain ; The Zemganno brothers ; Catch and release ; A mercenary frenzy ; Le paradou ; The sunflower and the oleander ; The poet's garden ; Imaginary savage ; La lutte ; The stranger ; Two roads ; The real south ; Starry night ; The isolated one ; "A degenerate child" ; The garden and the wheat field ; Illusions fade; the sublime remains -- Ici repose -- Appendix. A note on Vincent's fatal wounding.