Bob Duggan previews the exhibition Van Gogh: Up Close at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on view through May 6, 2012.

Duggan writes that "The mad, sad, and dangerous to know Vincent seen through the telephoto lens of legend gives way here to a clear-eyed view of an intensely focused artist who, despite personal difficulties, achieved greatness in art and communed intimately with nature in a way not only artistically revolutionary, but also therapeutic for himself and others."