Since 1995 the Van Gogh Museum and the Huygens Institute in The Hague have been preparing a new edition of the complete correspondence of Vincent van Gogh. In this first edition for an international public, around 600 Dutch and some 300 French letters are published in the original language alongside a parallel English translation based on a new examination of the original manuscripts.

The text in this edition is as close to the original as possible, and the translation as accurate as possible, in order for the first time to make the original text available for further study.
Each of the letters has been newly dated and English notes provide comments and references to every aspect that may require explanation for the modern reader, identifying all the persons, works of art and literary works mentioned, and elucidating the cultural historical, biographical and art-historical background. The many hundreds of art works cited and discussed by Van Gogh are illustrated, showing the artist's autodidactic art-historical development.

This new edition is rendered both digitally and in book form.

Web edition
This English-language website comprises all the known letters to and from Van Gogh in the original version, including images of the authentic manuscripts. The letters have been furnished with a new English translation and extensive annotations. Access to the site is free of charge: www.vangoghletters.org.

Book edition
Vincent van Gogh - The Letters: The complete, illustrated edition, Van Gogh Museum/Huygens Institute/Mercatorfonds/Thames & Hudson. Thames and Hudson (UK and US), Actes Sud (France) and Amsterdam University Press (The Netherlands), Mercatorfonds (Belgium), 2,240 pages, six volumes, hardcover, over 2,000 illustrations. Price € 325 until 3 January 2010, from 4 January 2010: € 395.

Publication:  October 2009

Researchers: Leo Jansen,  Hans Luijten, Nienke Bakker

Contact: lettersproject@vangoghmuseum.nl

This project was made possible by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, the Turing Foundation, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and Linea d’Ombra, among others.