Or is it that he is afraid I will ask him for money?
I must say it seems rather strange and rather unaccountable that you have not written me since the one letter I received on my arrival here. . . .
In thinking of you, I unconsciously said to myself, Why doesn't he write? If he is afraid of compromising himself in the eyes of Messrs. Goupil & Co. by keeping in touch with me - is his position with those gentlemen so shaky and unstable that he is obliged to be so careful? Or is it that he is afraid I will ask him for money? But if this was the reason for your silence, you might at least have waited until I tried to squeeze something out of you, as the saying goes.
To Theo van Gogh, from Brussels, January 1881, Letter 139
Translations courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
In thinking of you, I unconsciously said to myself, Why doesn't he write? If he is afraid of compromising himself in the eyes of Messrs. Goupil & Co. by keeping in touch with me - is his position with those gentlemen so shaky and unstable that he is obliged to be so careful? Or is it that he is afraid I will ask him for money? But if this was the reason for your silence, you might at least have waited until I tried to squeeze something out of you, as the saying goes.
To Theo van Gogh, from Brussels, January 1881, Letter 139
Translations courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
1 Comments:
Vincent had been employed by Goupil & Co. – an art dealer, where his uncle Cent had been a director - for nearly seven years. He’d created something of a family crisis by his behavior there, which eventually led to his resignation. His resignation, however, was the first step in a five year struggle that eventually led him to his decision to become an artist.
Vincent apologized to Theo for his tone in his very next letter (Letter 140): “You will quite forgive me when you know that I wrote my last letter in a moment of spleen. My drawings went all wrong, and not knowing what to do, I began to write. I certainly ought to have waited for a better moment, and this will show you that I myself undoubtedly belong to that class of people of which I spoke in my last letter, namely, that class of people who do not always reflect on what they say or do.”
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