An account of the tumultuous nine weeks in which the famous nineteenth century artists Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin shared a house in the small French town of Arles. It is an exploration of a fragile friendship, art, madness, genius behind a shocking act of self-mutilation that the world has sought to explain.

Presents a new way of thinking about French painting in the 1820s and beyond. Fresh insights into the life and work of a hugely important and popular artist.

In the juxtaposition of so-called “Salon painters” and “Reformers of painting” this volume offers a discriminating look at the controversial styles in French painting between 1820 and 1880 and the developments within the traditional genres.

In a voice that mixes dry humor and clear, concise instruction, McCloud's cartoon narrator shows readers how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalist way. Comic book devotees as well as the most uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once-underappreciated art form.