Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Oh wow. I never knew that. I was always under the impression that he was dirt poor and mentally rather unstable, instead of calculating and sort of greedy, like this. Weird.

He was dirt poor but not for lack of trying. He wanted to appeal to buyers and actually try to make a living, so it makes sense to me that he would keep potential buyers in mind when painting. As for copying the cover of a magazine, I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. Artists get their inspiration where ever they find it. Van Gogh and his contemporaries were really taken by Japanese printmaking. I doubt he was trying to plagiarize it and claim the design as his own. I don't see this as any different than an artist working from a photograph or, say, the label of a soup can.

Also, we probably know a lot more about the inner workings of Van Goghs mind (compared to other artists) due to the extensive correspondence with his brother Theo that we have access to. So maybe others thought the same, but we're not aware of that because there's no record of it?