What will be most profitable?

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 20 August 1882

I should not want to make things that were intrinsically bad, untrue, and of false conception, because I love nature too much. But this is the problem: I must still make many studies to reach something higher and better. What will be most profitable, drawing those studies or painting them? . . .

I certainly hope that you will not infer from this letter that I am pretentious enough to think these first studies saleable. Formerly I could tell better than now what things were worth, whether they were saleable or not; now I notice daily that I do not know any more, and studying nature is more important to me than studying the prices of pictures. . . . I would rather you decided this than I, because I think you are more competent to judge financial success, and I absolutely trust your judgment.

Letter 227
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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