Prints for the people

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 1 December 1882

It has always been said that in Holland we cannot make prints for the people - I have never been able to believe it, I see now that it can be done

I see that with persistence and perseverance it might become something not at all unnecessary, but definitely good and useful.

The Society for General Welfare has bolstered up Elsevier in Rotterdam with thousands of guilders for the publication of The Swallow. Did The Swallow become a good thing? No, though it had a few beautiful sheets, it was too uninteresting, not serious, not powerful, not strong enough . . . .

So, instead of saying, . . . "It might be done, and if so, we should do it," Elsevier and thousands like him say it can't be done, or they do it sloppily and without enough energy. . . . I know their magazine well enough to take it upon myself to say, "You have not made it what it might have been, it should and might have been better."

So what is needed is courage and self-sacrifice and risking something, not for gain, but because it is useful and good; one must retain one's trust in one's fellow creatures and fellow countrymen in general.

Letter 249
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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