Prologue: A fanatic heart

The early years, 1853-1880

Dams and dikes

An outpost on the heath

A strange boy

God and money

The road to Rijswijk

The exile

Imitation of Christ

Pilgrim's progress

O Jerusalem, O Zundert

Head to the wind

"Dat is het"

The black country

The land of pictures

The Dutch years, 1880-1886

Hearts of ice

Aimer encore

A draftsman's fist

My little window

Orphan man

Jacob and Esau

Castles in the air

The prisoner

La joie de vivre

The waternix

A grain of madness

In one rush

Lost illusions

The French years, 1886-1890

Against the grain

The Zemganno brothers

Catch and release

A mercenary frenzy

Le paradou

The sunflower and the oleander

The poet's garden

Imaginary savage

La lutte

The stranger

Two roads

The real south

Starry night

The isolated one

"A degenerate child"

The garden and the wheat field

Illusions fade; the sublime remains

Ici repose

Appendix. A note on Vincent's fatal wounding.