Van Gogh and the End of Nature

“Intriguing. . . . Taking what is now a topical approach, [Lobel] regards Van Gogh as warning of ‘threats of climate change and ecological destruction.’”—Martin Bailey, Art Newspaper

“[A] revealing study. . . . The fine-grained analysis and lively prose delight. Art history buffs will want to add this to their bookshelves.”—Publishers Weekly

“Spirited. . . . Lobel’s conversational tone dodges academic jargon, immediate and inviting as Van Gogh’s rich surfaces. He’s a witty guide and sworn enemy of clichés about the artist. . . . Van Gogh and the End of Nature balances somber themes with a buoyant love of the artist’s drawings and pigments.”—Hamilton Cain, On the Seawall

“In this remarkable book, Michael Lobel makes a stunning contribution to our understanding of Van Gogh, an artist seemingly so familiar as to be beyond revision. Writing with refreshing lucidity and engaging humor, Lobel substantially reframes this iconic figure of postimpressionist art by revealing—in work after work—an entire realm of environmental observation hitherto largely unnoticed by scholars.” —Susan Sidlauskas, Rutgers University

“Michael Lobel’s superb, richly illustrated book shifts Van Gogh studies in a new, far more interesting direction. Van Gogh and the End of Nature should inspire a reinvestigation of the industrial complexities that made modernism possible.” —Alan C. Braddock, author of Implication: An Ecocritical Dictionary for Art History

“To situate Van Gogh, the celebrated ‘painter of nature,’ as a witness, a critic, and at the same time an aesthete of the industrial despoliation of nature that inevitably marked the age of coal everywhere is a stunning achievement. Michael Lobel’s elegant—and cogently argued—book will fundamentally change our view of this important artist and greatly advance the conversation already underway between art history and the environmental humanities. A must-read for anyone interested in that conversation.” —Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age

“Van Gogh worked at the dawn of a modernity marked by a shift in the relative dominance of the natural and the manmade. Lobel’s exploration of this relationship in Van Gogh’s art is fascinating!” —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature