This is a unique cookbook/art book that explores life in the artists' cafe, with traditional recipes ranging from the hearty to the refined. With the use of letters, engravings, postcards, and a selection of Van Gogh's paintings, Fred Leeman, former chief curator of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, helps to transport the reader back to the turn of the century, when cafes, their food and atmosphere, were integral parts of artists lives. Recipes are by Alexandra Leaf, one of America's foremost culinary historians.