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"He absorbed nature into himself ; he forced
it to be more f lexible, to mould itself to the
forms of his thought , to follow him in his
f lights, and even to submit to his highly
characterist ic deformat ions. Van Gogh had
what makes one person stand out from
the rest to a rare degree: style.”
Octave Mirbeau: article in L’Écho de Paris published eight months
after Van Gogh’s death (31 March 1891).