A page of Van Gogh's Letters: The Mind of the Artist in Paintings, Drawings, and Words, 1875-1890. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The edited letters are mainly about Van Gogh's ideas about painting, his interpretation of the paintings he sent to his brother together with the letters.

Readers can see how his ideas about painting developed throughout the years, how he created a work and his ideas about art, artists, literature, religion and scenery.

"From the letters, you won't see he is mad. Even before he committed suicide, he sounded so calm and normal in the letters," Wang says.

Ma Jun, one of the translators, is a painter himself.

"I love Van Gogh's sketches the most and some copies are included in the book. They are very gorgeous," he says.

"Van Gogh was such an honest man and artist," he says.

"Van Gogh kept down all the details of how he spent the money Theo sent to him," Yuan says, "and he expressed his great gratitude to his brother. From the delicate description of the colors he applied on one of his paintings, you can tell how keen he was to colors."

"There are so many sayings about what kind of person Van Gogh was, but why not read his own inner world to find out," Wang says.

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