Prejudice and convention

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Cuesmes, July 1880

There is an old academic school, often odious and tyrannical, the ‘abomination of desolation’, in short, men who dress, as it were, in a suit of steel armor, a cuirass, of prejudice and convention. When they are in charge, it is they who hand out the jobs and try, with much red tape, to keep them for their protégés and to exclude the man with an open mind.

This is a bad state of affairs for anyone who differs from them and protests with heart and soul and all the indignation he can muster. . . .

Now, one of the reasons why I have no regular job, and why I have not had a regular job for years, is quite simply that my ideas differ from those of the gentlemen who hand out the jobs to individuals who think as they do. It is not just a question of my appearance, which is what they have sanctimoniously reproached me with. It goes deeper, I do assure you.

Letter 133
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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