"This misfortune alters nothing"
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3-5 December 1882
I do not know if you have read Dickens's Little Dorrit and if you remember in it the figure of Doyce, the man one could take as a type of those whose principle is How to do it. Even if you do not know that splendid workman's figure from the book, you will understand the fellow's character from this one phrase. When the thing he wanted to bring about was blocked by indifference and worse things, and he couldn't go on, he simply said, "This misfortune alters nothing; the thing is just as true now (after the failure) as it was then (before the failure)." And what had failed in England he started again on the Continent, and succeeded there.
Letter 251
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
I do not know if you have read Dickens's Little Dorrit and if you remember in it the figure of Doyce, the man one could take as a type of those whose principle is How to do it. Even if you do not know that splendid workman's figure from the book, you will understand the fellow's character from this one phrase. When the thing he wanted to bring about was blocked by indifference and worse things, and he couldn't go on, he simply said, "This misfortune alters nothing; the thing is just as true now (after the failure) as it was then (before the failure)." And what had failed in England he started again on the Continent, and succeeded there.
Letter 251
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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