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"When Vincent van Gogh had his last major showing in this country - at the Hayward Gallery in 1968 - he was merely one of the greatest artists the world had ever known. His influence on 20th-century art was widely understood, his tragic story universally known. The film Lust for Life, with its eye-rolling, paint-chomping performance from Kirk Douglas, had been consigned to history, while having had a decisive effect on the way we view the artist. Yet van Gogh was just one huge artistic figure among many. Since then, he has become something no other artist has ever quite been, "the world's favourite artist". Van Gogh, even more than the Impressionists, is seen as the artist who blew open the studio door, blasting away centuries of fusty academic painting, to let in the light of real experience. "

"n the dazzling heat of Provence in July, Van Gogh drags his easel up an ankle-turning hill. He has nothing to drink but sour milk. But the toil is worthwhile, for below him is a beautiful sight: "An immense flat expanse," he writes, "of vineyards, fields of harvested wheat, all of it infinitely multiplied, streaming away like the surface of the sea towards the horizon." The mistral scorches his face, blows mosquitoes into his eyes. He can hardly keep the easel steady. A companion thinks the view too vast (read dull) for art, but Van Gogh persists and you can see the astonishing result about two-thirds of the way round this epochal show at the Royal Academy. Sky, crops and trees become an immense force field of whorls, dots and loops of zigzags and curlicues, commas and minims, of notations that flow like music while following the exact undulations of the landscape. Furze tangles in cable-knit patterns, threshed wheat softens the fields with a smoky haze. Whispery specks drift into the distance, growing smaller and smaller until they mimic the effect of dissolving light."

"This new exhibition of letters, drawings and paintings strips away the myth to reveal what really made Van Gogh special - his art"

"O fato de uma batalha acirrada ter sido travada em torno do acervo Barnes, repleto de telas de Renoir, Picasso e Van Gogh, não chega a surpreender. O que estava em jogo eram até 25 bilhões de dólares em obras de arte raras."