You don't believe in yourself

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 6 July 1882

There is “color” in your short description which is palpable and visible to me, though you did not carry your impression through till it assumed a more robust form, and stood visible and palpable to everybody. The real throes and anguish of creating begin at the point where you drop the description; but you possess a damn good creative intelligence. Right now you can go no further because you don't believe in yourself in this respect; otherwise you would jump the ditch, that is to say, you would venture further. But enough of this; there is a je ne sais quoi in your description, a fragrance, a memory, for instance, of a watercolor by Bonington - only it is still vague, as if in a haze. Do you know that drawing with words is also an art, which sometimes betrays a slumbering hidden force, like small blue or grey puffs of smoke indicate a fire on the hearth?

Letter 212
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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