This book is captivatingly, marvellously written, extensively researched. It is a ‘fictional’ narrative of the roughly eighteen months that Vincent and Sien were together. It is divided into three parts, with thirty one chapters .We follow the changes in the lives of Vincent van Gogh (1853 -1890) and Sien Hoornik.

Silvia Kwon is also the author of The Return (2014). She has a BA in Art History from the University of Western Australia and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia (UK), where she was the Malcolm Bradbury Scholar for 2017-18.

The book opens in 1882 in The Hague on an appalling cold, stormy winter night. Sien Hoornik is a streetwalker, who is pregnant and has her young daughter Maria with her. Sien ‘services’ a semi -regular customer Johann but he flees when he discovers she is expecting again.However he does leave her some money . Sien starts walking but collapses, almost dead.

She and Maria are just about to succumb to hunger, cold and exhaustion when they are rescued by a Good Samaritan/Guardian Angel , otherwise known as the struggling artist Vincent van Gogh, who renders assistance, shelter and warmth for the night.

Vincent is captivated by Sien – her life of hand to mouth drudgery, her battles, her distinctive face – Vincent offers Sien work posing as a paid model for him. The two soon become lovers , Sien the only ‘live in girlfriend/ de facto wife’ Vincent ever has ever had.  Can their love survive ?

Over the course of the book we learn how Vincent is driven, one could say passionately obsessed, by his art and his search for ‘the line’ and how he always doubts himself and experiments with various techniques, often working feverishly.

We learn about Sien’s family, her mother Wilhemina, her brother Karel and how Sien is their major support and breadwinner.

Vincent’s family is also described – his father Dorus, brother Theo, and various cousins such as Tersteeg, who runs a gallery, Maeve and Vincent’s friend Rappard who is also involved in the art world. But do they accept Sien? Some of them stop supporting Vincent who can’t sell his work and Theo fulminates and says Vincent and Sien CANNOT marry. Letters and packages arrive for Vincent and Sien but no mention of her is made.

Before the baby’s birth Sien bleeds badly. Vincent takes her to hospital, the doctors examine her – it is a difficult breech birth and she is put on a regime of healthy diet. There are major financial problems. Vincent also comes down with Gonoorrhoea and Sien visits him .

Sien almost dies giving birth. Vincent acts as a doting dad to baby Willem .

After the birth Vincent goes on a day trip to  Scheveninegen and gets caught in the storm – loves it and paints it with the special paintbox Theo had sent. Meanwhile Sien suffers from post natal depression and exhaustion.

Then we learn of Vincent’s plans to perhaps move to London and the use of lithography – but this all falls through. Vincent says he has stopped painting and will concentrate on drawing for the moment and discovers Jacob who he uses as a model and becomes almost a friend.

At one point Wilhemina and Sien’s family arrive, having been evicted by  Karel. Fortunately Vincent has just had a commission from another uncle to do streetscapes so has a little money. Wilhemina also informs Sien about Vincent’s strange behaviour on the train tracks. But Vincent becomes very ill and the apartment becomes very awkward and crowded especially as Vincent drags people in to model for him.

Sien looks after Vincent but there are major money problems and they end up depending on soup kitchens and the like. Eventually Wilhemina and Wil move back to Karel’s new place , which helps a bit .Will Sien have to return to being a streetwalker ? But Vincent is all excited as he has completed another painting and received some money from Theo. We then learn of their quarrels and parting at the train station.

The narrative then jumps to Rotterdam, 1904. Sien , now married, discovers Vincent’s work in a gallery and observes how his style had greatly changed and become far more colourful. It is only then that she learns that Vincent shot himself in a field in France years ago.

(In a sad follow up to this but not mentioned in the book, Sien drowned herself also in 1904).

While Vincent struggled to make ends meet and sold almost nothing of his work,  today he is celebrated as one of the world’s greatest ever painters.

A totally engrossing book for lovers of art and history.

https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761264863/

• ISBN: 9781761264863
• Format: Trade Paperback
• Pub Date: 25/07/2023
• Category: Fiction & related items / General
  Fiction & related items / Historical fiction
• Imprint: Macmillan Australia
• Pages: 336
• Price: $34.99

Featured image : Vincent van Gogh-Vase with Cornflowers and Poppies