March quickly

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 16 November 1882

I should like to write at greater length about your statement, "One should only put something before the world if that something fulfills the strictest demands of technique." That is what the art dealers say too, and I do not believe what they say. Think it over a little - that would save me the trouble of writing about it - and ask yourself whether it is not just as permissible to put a drawing like this one, just as is drawn from the model without any subsequent retouching, before the world (although I admit that there is some faulty drawing in it), as it is for me to go out into the street in my work clothes if I think it convenient, and without having to plant myself before a mirror to see if there's something the matter with my attire before I leave the house. If you admit that these things are similar, though you yourself would do neither, then the question remains whether it is not often more advisable during a campaign to march quickly than to smarten oneself up.

Letter R19
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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