Fortune has favored me but little
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 20-21 August 1883
My idea about earning money is as simple as can be - it is that it must come through my work, and that nothing can be gained by going to speak to people about it.
Yet whenever there is a chance, I try to catch it . . . but up to now fortune has favored me but little. Well, never mind, if only you do not upset me by suspecting me of unwillingness.
For I think if you consider things seriously, you will not doubt my working hard, and besides, if you should insist on my going to ask people to buy from me, I would do so, but in that case I should perhaps get melancholy. . . .
Brother dear, human brains cannot bear everything; there is a limit. . . . Trying to go and speak to people about my work makes me more nervous than is good for me. And what is the result? Rejection, or being put off with fair promises.
Letter 315
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
My idea about earning money is as simple as can be - it is that it must come through my work, and that nothing can be gained by going to speak to people about it.
Yet whenever there is a chance, I try to catch it . . . but up to now fortune has favored me but little. Well, never mind, if only you do not upset me by suspecting me of unwillingness.
For I think if you consider things seriously, you will not doubt my working hard, and besides, if you should insist on my going to ask people to buy from me, I would do so, but in that case I should perhaps get melancholy. . . .
Brother dear, human brains cannot bear everything; there is a limit. . . . Trying to go and speak to people about my work makes me more nervous than is good for me. And what is the result? Rejection, or being put off with fair promises.
Letter 315
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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