Van Gogh's power to paint with prose

Renowned Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh was also a literary giant, say researchers who have scrutinized his vast body of correspondence - the topic of a new exhibition opening in Amsterdam on Friday.

"Van Gogh was a hero of modern art and has also left behind a monument of literature," director of the Van Gogh Museum Axel Ruger said at a press launch of the exhibition entitled Van Gogh's Letters: The Artist Speaks.

A total of 902 letters written and received by the Impressionist painter between 1872 and 1890 - the year he committed suicide at age 37 - have recently been published in an imposing six-volume book collection and on the Internet.