Vincent van Gogh, the most iconic of the Post-Impressionist artists, spends the last few months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, painting the countryside some thirty kilometers from Paris. He lives in the Ravoux family’s inn. This book is a fictional account of a love affair between the wife, Louise, and Vincent. She struggles to keep the inn afloat, raise her two daughters, and avoids her husband who is abusive, philandering, and steals money from the inn’s income to support his Paris mistress.
Something about Vincent brings Louise back to life. She longs to resume her own studies of painting and convinces him to take her on as a pupil. Though attracted to Vincent, Louise is scarred physically and emotionally from her husband’s beatings.
This is a delightful story that gives some joy to van Gogh’s last months when he was released after a year in an insane asylum. It’s the best of women’s fiction in that Louise pulls herself out of her misery and reawakens her joie de vivre; it’s also the best of historical fiction, a lovely blend of well-documented facts and fiction. It also brings an alternate theory to how Van Gogh died. I enjoyed reading it in one sitting.
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Louise and Vincent(Red Adept Publishing, August 15, 2023) is available through:
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You can find my review of Ms. Byington’s If She Had Stayed here.
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