A great whole, a corps of painters whose strength is unity
I am sorely disappointed in my association with painters. Will it improve???...
...When I first came to this city I went to all the studios I could visit in order to find intercourse and make friends. Now I have cooled off very much in this respect, being of the opinion that there is a serious drawback to it, in that the painters pretend to be friendly, but are too often inclined to trip you up. That is the fatal thing; we ought to help and trust each other, for there are enough enmities in society, and we should be better off in general if we did not injure each other's interests. It is jealousy that impels many to speak ill systematically of others - and what is the result? Instead of forming a great whole, a corps of painters whose strength is unity, everyone keeps to himself and works all alone, and those who are at the top at present create, by their very jealousy, a kind of desert around themselves, which I think is a very unfortunate thing - for themselves.
Sharp competition in painting and drawing is in a certain sense good, or at any rate justified, but the artists should not become personal enemies and fight each other with other weapons.
To Anton von Rappard, from The Hague, 4 February 1883, Letter R20
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
...When I first came to this city I went to all the studios I could visit in order to find intercourse and make friends. Now I have cooled off very much in this respect, being of the opinion that there is a serious drawback to it, in that the painters pretend to be friendly, but are too often inclined to trip you up. That is the fatal thing; we ought to help and trust each other, for there are enough enmities in society, and we should be better off in general if we did not injure each other's interests. It is jealousy that impels many to speak ill systematically of others - and what is the result? Instead of forming a great whole, a corps of painters whose strength is unity, everyone keeps to himself and works all alone, and those who are at the top at present create, by their very jealousy, a kind of desert around themselves, which I think is a very unfortunate thing - for themselves.
Sharp competition in painting and drawing is in a certain sense good, or at any rate justified, but the artists should not become personal enemies and fight each other with other weapons.
To Anton von Rappard, from The Hague, 4 February 1883, Letter R20
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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