January
I sincerely wish you a very happy New Year.
I?m writing below a few names of painters whom I like very much indeed.
Scheffer, Delaroche, Hébert, Hamon.
Leys, Tissot, Lagye, Boughton, Millais, Thijs Maris, Degroux, De Braekeleer Jr.
Millet, Jules Breton, Feyen-Perrin, Eugène Feyen, Brion, Jundt, George Saal. Israëls, Anker, Knaus, Vautier, Jourdan, Jalabert, Antigna, Compte-Calix, Rochussen, Meissonier, Zamacois, [...]
28 December
From the most elevated artistic viewpoint possible, there?s likewise nothing to be said against ? painting people, that was the old Italian art, that was Millet and that is Breton.
The question is simply whether one takes the soul or the clothes as one?s starting-point, and whether one allows the form to serve as a [...]
14 December
Rubens is certainly making a strong impression on me. I find his drawing immensely good, by which I mean the drawing of heads and hands in themselves. I?m utterly carried away, for instance, by his way of drawing the features in a face with strokes of pure red or, in the hands, modelling the [...]
6 December
From an artistic point of view, Millet is Millet, Corot Corot, fixed ? as the sun itself, in my view. Five years ago I thought differently about it, in so far as I thought that Millet, say, would remain fixed, EVEN in price, but since then ? precisely because I see Millet is usually [...]
28 November
Saturday evening
Wanted to write to you with a few more impressions of Antwerp.
This morning I went for a really good walk in the pouring rain, an expedition with the object of fetching my things from the customs office. The different entrepôts and hangars on the wharves are very fine.
I?ve already walked in all directions [...]
25 November
In the morning it was so beautiful on the way to Turnham Green, the chestnut trees and clear blue sky and the morning sun were reflected in the water of the Thames, the grass was gloriously green and everywhere all around the sound of church bells. The day before I?d gone on a long [...]
24 November
Today and yesterday I drew two figures of an old man with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
What a fine sight an old working man makes, in his patched bombazine suit with his bald head.
I?ve finished the book by Zola, Pot-bouille. I thought the most powerful passage was the [...]
21 November
Have you seen the studies that Bernard brought back from Brittany? Gauguin has told me many things about them. He himself has one which is simply masterly. I think that buying one from him, from Bernard, would be doing him a service, and that he really deserves it.
The weather here is cold, but we [...]
16 November
That little drawing, ?The Au charbonnage café? is really nothing special, but the reason I couldn?t help making it is because one sees so many coalmen, and they really are a remarkable people. This little house is not far from Trekweg, it?s actually a simple inn right next to the big workplace where the [...]
12 November
I?ve now just painted a reminiscence of the garden at Etten, to put in my bedroom, and here?s a croquis of it. It?s quite a big canvas.
Now here are the colours. The younger of the two women walking is wearing a Scottish shawl with green and orange checks and carrying a red parasol. The [...]
I certainly hope to sell in the course of time, but that I think I shall be able to influence it most effectively by working steadily on, and that at the present moment making desperate “efforts” to force the work I am doing now upon the public ....
Amice Rappard,
Herewith some of Coppée's poems which I promised to
send you. “Tristement” reminds me of a Poplar
Avenue by Hippolyte Boulanger - I think it is called “La
Vallée de Josaphat.” How much of an autumn
atmosphere there is in it! I thought you would admire them too.
There are many more in the same little volume; I chose only a
few at random.
These past few days I have made a number of studies in the
open air; I am sending you a little sketch of one of them.
My mother is recovering steadily; the fracture is healed
now, and the plaster cast has been taken off. But she will
still have to keep her leg in a horizontal position for about
six weeks. Yesterday, however, we carried her to the living
room on a kind of litter as a trial, and later on we shall be
able to carry her into the open air too once in a while.
I am adding to Coppée's poems an Arabian fable that I
found this week in an article by De Lesseps, “Voyage dans
le Soudan.” I thought the idea subtle, and I believe it
may be so. Seen from this point of view, human males do
not play a very noble part - oh well, that may happen too
sometimes. But in general it won't do, for after all... does
the candle burn for the moth's sake? If one knew that for
certain - well - it might be worth while to commit suicide in
this way.
But what if the candle itself should snigger at the burned
wings...?
I was struck by it, whatever the truth of it may be. And - I
firmly believe that there are things like that in the depths of
our souls - and that they would cut us to the quick if we knew
about them. At times we are quite disenchanted by mankind - our
own selves included, of course - and yet - seeing that we are
going to pop off soon enough after all - it would hardly be
worth while to stick to our displeasure, even if it were well
founded.
And in case our ideas about the worthlessness of mankind
were unfounded, our mistake would be all the worse for us. In
my opinion the worst evil of all evils is self-righteousness,
and exterminating it in ourselves is an everlasting weeding
job...all the more difficult for us Dutchmen, as so often our
very education must induce us inevitably to become highly
self-righteous. But let's stop harping on the subject.
But, speaking for myself, this showing of my work to others
once in a while is something that stimulates me, now that I
have started to do so (perhaps it is very foolish of me).
Source: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Anthon van Rappard. Written c. 1 March 1884 in Nuenen. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, number R41. URL: http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/14/R41.htm.
