“One must put one's hide into art”

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 11 March 1882

And another thing touched me - very, very deeply. I had told the model not to come today - I didn't say why, but nevertheless the poor woman came, and I protested. “Yes, but I have not come to pose - I just came to see if you had something for dinner.” She had brought me a dish of beans and potatoes. There are things that make life worth living after all. The following words in Sensier's Millet appealed to me, and touched me very much, sayings of Millet's:

“ Art is a fight - one must put one's hide into art.”

“The thing to do is to work like a lot of Negroes: I would rather say nothing than express myself feebly.”

It was only yesterday that I read this last saying of Millet's, but I felt the same thing before; that's why I sometimes like to scratch what I want to express with a hard carpenter's pencil or a pen instead of with a soft brush. Take care, Tersteeg, take care, you are decidedly wrong.

Letter 180
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what