A period of absurdities

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22-23 August 1883

I am very glad about your revised opinion about my work - your revised opinion tallies with Rappard's - Van der Weele also thinks there is something in my work. Personally, I believe that in every painter's life there is a period when he makes absurdities, and for myself, I think that period is already a long time behind me. Further, I think that I am making progress slowly but steadily, and that the better work I do later will cast a reflex on the work I am doing now, and will show more clearly that even now there is already some truth and simplicity in it, and as you yourself express it, a manly conception and perception.

So that if you now find something in a study, you will not have to retract that opinion, and later better work will never make you indifferent to the first.

Letter 317
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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