It was pure, holy, wonderful, beautiful
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 11 March 1882
Tomorrow morning I will go out to find a subject for C. M.'s drawings. This evening I was at Pulchri. Tableaux vivants and a kind of farce by Tony Offermans. I did not stay for the farce because I do not like them and I cannot stand the close air of a crowded hall, but I wanted to see the tableaux, especially as there was one after an etching which I had given to Mauve, “The Stable at Bethlehem” by Nicolaes Maes (the other was Rembrandt's “Isaac Blessing Jacob,” with a splendid Rebecca looking on to see if her trick will succeed). The Nicolaes Maes was very good in tone and colour, but the expression was not worth anything. The expression was decidedly wrong. Once I saw this in reality, not of course the birth of Christ, but the birth of a calf. And I remember exactly how the expression was. There was a little girl in the stable that night - in the Borinage - a little brown peasant girl with a white nightcap: she had tears of compassion in her eyes for the poor cow when the poor thing was in throes and was having great trouble. It was pure, holy, wonderful, beautiful, like a Correggio, a Millet, an Israëls.
Letter 181
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
Tomorrow morning I will go out to find a subject for C. M.'s drawings. This evening I was at Pulchri. Tableaux vivants and a kind of farce by Tony Offermans. I did not stay for the farce because I do not like them and I cannot stand the close air of a crowded hall, but I wanted to see the tableaux, especially as there was one after an etching which I had given to Mauve, “The Stable at Bethlehem” by Nicolaes Maes (the other was Rembrandt's “Isaac Blessing Jacob,” with a splendid Rebecca looking on to see if her trick will succeed). The Nicolaes Maes was very good in tone and colour, but the expression was not worth anything. The expression was decidedly wrong. Once I saw this in reality, not of course the birth of Christ, but the birth of a calf. And I remember exactly how the expression was. There was a little girl in the stable that night - in the Borinage - a little brown peasant girl with a white nightcap: she had tears of compassion in her eyes for the poor cow when the poor thing was in throes and was having great trouble. It was pure, holy, wonderful, beautiful, like a Correggio, a Millet, an Israëls.
Letter 181
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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