Does the world need another book about van Gogh?

I love art books and have a substantial personal library myself.  They are costly and my space is limited, so I really take advantage of the award winning San Francisco Public Library.   It is the best!   

The other day I spotted a new van Gogh book on the shelves — Vincent's Portraits Paintings and Drawings by van Gogh by Ralph Skea from Thames & Hudson.  I asked myself, does the world need another book about van Gogh?  

The answer is yes!  This is the book.  

This rather small volume is well written with details that are both concise and organized focusing on van Gogh’s portraiture.  But the true reason I have taken the time to post about this book is the images.  With most art books about popular artists, you tend to see the same images over and over. Even though van Gogh’s body of work is limited due to his sadly short life, I have always had the feeling, you’ve seen one book, you have seen them all.  The brilliance of Skea’s book is that he has included so many portraits that rarely if ever appear in other books.  Our library has another book by Skea, I have requested it.  I suspect I will be asking the library to acquire his other art books as well.  If you don’t have access to a good library, go to your local, independent bookstore and get a hold of this one.