A certain real human feeling

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 28 October 1883

In order to maintain a certain rank, one is obliged to commit certain villainies, falsehoods - willingly and knowingly, premeditatedly. That's what I call the fatal side, even of the rayon noir, let alone when there is no rayon at all.

Now take, for instance, the painters of Barbizon: not only do I understand them as men, but in my opinion everything - the smallest, the most intimate details - sparkles with humor and life. The “painter’s family life,” with its great and small miseries, with its calamities, its sorrows and griefs, has the advantage of having a certain good will, a certain sincerity, a certain real human feeling. Just because of that not maintaining a certain standing, not even thinking about it.

Letter 336
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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No better place for meditation

Vincent van Gogh to his parents, from Drenthe, c. 27 October 1883

In the country it is more quiet, more peaceful, a little better, too - though they may cheat each other, it is not so bad as in the city. . . .

Don't worry about my health, I take care of myself, and I am feeling even better here these first days than during those last months in The Hague, when I suffered much from my nerves. And that is quite calmed down now. I think there is no better place for meditation than by a rustic hearth and an old cradle with a baby in it, with the window overlooking a delicate green cornfield and the waving of the alder bushes.

Letter 334
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The civilized man

Vincent van Gogh to his parents, from Drenthe, c. 27 October 1883

Recently I had a conversation with the man whom I board with, who is a farmer himself. . . . I told him that in my opinion a simple farmer who works, and works intelligently, is the civilized man, that it has always been so and always will be, that in the country one finds an example of it here and there, and in the city one finds a few men who are almost as noble, though in quite a different way, among the very, very rare excellent people. But that in my opinion it goes no further, and that in general there is more chance of finding a reasonable human being in the country than in the city. And that in my opinion the nearer one gets to the large cities, the further one gets into the darkness of degeneration and stupidity and wickedness.

Letter 334
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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An artist's paradise

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 22-29 October 1883

Today I went to visit the place where the dustmen dump the garbage, etc. Lord, how beautiful that is . . . . Tomorrow I shall get some interesting objects from this Refuse Dump - including some broken street lamps - rusted and twisted - on view - or to pose for me, if you like the expression better. The dustman will bring them around. That collection of discarded buckets, baskets, kettles, soldiers' mess kettles, oil cans, iron wire, street lamps, stovepipes was something out of a fairy tale by Andersen.

I shall probably dream of it tonight, but you may be sure I shall work on it this winter. Whenever you come to The Hague, I shall be greatly pleased if you will allow me to take you to this and some other spots, which, though they are commonplace in the extreme, are really an artist's paradise.

Letter R28
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Friendship must be action

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 22-29 October 1883

I have been thinking over your scruples about accepting the illustrations I sent you; and, although I respect your feelings, I believe you must not consider it a kindness on my part but look upon it as something natural - for the following reason.

I hope you do not object to my considering you my friend, and I suppose that you on your part think of me in the same way. I feel sure you will agree with me when I say that I think friendship must be primarily action and not just feeling. Consequently it was only natural for me to save duplicates for you of things you didn't have yet. You yourself did me a similar favor in Brussels, for instance, by letting me use your studio when I didn't have one of my own yet, and so on.

Letter R28
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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This fire within oneself

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 31 October 1882

Every time I feel a little out of sorts, I find in my collection of wood engravings a stimulus to set to work with renewed zest. In all these fellows I see an energy, a determination and a free, healthy, cheerful spirit that animate me. And in their work there is something lofty and dignified - even when they draw a dunghill. When you think of the enormous productivity of most of those men who make these “little illustrations” - “those things you find on the reading table of the South Holland Cafe,” you know - you can't help thinking that there must be an extraordinary amount of ardor and fire in them. And I think, having this fire within oneself and stirring it up continually is better than having the arrogance of those artists who disdain looking at it.

Letter R16
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A way of making some money

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 31 October 1882

If I said just now that at times I wish I could see your work, on the other hand I often wish you could see mine too. The reason is that I think I could profit by your opinion, and also that you would see that the separate drawings are gradually beginning to form a whole, and also that we might talk things over and try to find a way of making some money out of them.

Letter R16
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One feels weaker as an artist

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 31 October 1882

One must have a warm sympathy with human beings, and go on having it, or the drawings will remain cold and insipid. I consider it very necessary for us to watch ourselves, and to take care that we do not become disenchanted in this respect, and I therefore think it of little importance to meddle in what I will call “painters' intrigues” and to assume any attitude toward them other than defensive. I always think of the old proverb, “One does not gather figs from thorns,” as soon as I realize that some people believe they will be stimulated by their intercourse with artists. I believe Thomas a Kempis says somewhere, “I never mingled with human beings without feeling less human.” In the same way I think one feels weaker as an artist (and rightly too) the more one associates with artists. Only when artists seriously combine to cooperate on a task that is too much for only one man do I think it an excellent thing. But in most cases it turns out to be much ado about nothing.

Letter R16
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I am looked down upon

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 31 October 1882

A short while ago I collected all the studies I have done since the time of your visit or thereabouts. I found about a hundred figure drawings of men, women and children, not counting what I have drawn in my sketchbook. Although the number does not matter so much, I just mention it to show you that I am trying to push on energetically, and yet I am looked down upon, and considered a nonentity, by fellows who are certainly working less hard than I am - which by the way leaves me pretty cold - and nobody here pays the slightest attention to my work.

Letter R16
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The least desirable thing

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 31 October 1882

How eager I am sometimes to see something of your work. As regards “Arti,” I think that these gentlemen are up to their usual tricks again - one of those things that won't change, which used to be and will always be what they are now. I congratulate you on their refusal. I cannot tell you anything about a similar experience of my own, for the simple reason that I don't even dream of exhibiting my work. The idea leaves me absolutely cold. Now and then I wish some friend could have a look at what I have in my studio - which happens very seldom; but I have never felt the wish and I think I never shall - to invite the general public to look at my work. I am not indifferent to appreciation of my work, but this too must be something silent - and I think a certain popularity the least desirable thing of all.

Letter R16
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Love for one's fellow creatures

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 29 October 1882

I believe that if one wants to make figures, one must have a warm feeling, what Punch calls in its Christmas picture, Good will to all - that means one must have real love for one's fellow creatures. I for one hope to try my best to be in such a mood as much as possible.

It is for just this reason that I am sorry not to have any intercourse with painters, and that, as I wrote you before, one cannot sit cozily together round a fire on a rainy day like today, looking at drawings or engravings and stimulating each other in this way.

Letter 239
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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If I could sometimes consult you

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 29 October 1882

I often long for you, as I already wrote you. If I saw you more often, and if I could speak to you about my work, I should make more things, which I am sure might proceed from the studies I have. But you remember that not long ago I wrote you (when sending you a sketch in color of a potato market), “I must try to paint the bustle of the streets again.” The result if this is about twelve watercolors which I am doing right now, so I do not want to say that I cannot do anything with my studies or that I make them without a definite purpose, but only that I believe I could do more with them and make them more directly effective if I could sometimes consult you about it.

Letter 239
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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He and I are counted for nothing

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 29 October 1882

I do not know whether all painters, even those who look down on my work so much that they think it beneath their dignity to take the slightest notice of it, work harder than I do. Nor do I know if they know a better way than to work from the model, though, in my opinion, they do it too little; as I wrote you before, I cannot understand why they do not take more models. . . .

This week I had a letter from Rappard, who is also astonished at the behavior of many painters here, and whose picture was refused for the Arti exhibition. I ask you, is it just that he and I are counted for nothing?

For I assure you that he works hard.

Letter 239
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A tendency to analyze things

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

We share a liking for peering behind the scenes, or, in other words, we have a tendency to analyze things. Now I believe that this is precisely the quality one has to have in order to paint - the strength one must exert in painting or drawing. It may be that nature has favored us to some extent (in any case you and I certainly have it - perhaps we owe it to our boyhood in Brabant and to surroundings that taught us to think more than is usual), but it is really and truly not until later that the artistic sensibility develops and ripens through work. I cannot tell you how you might become a very good painter, but that you have it in you and can bring it out is something I really do believe.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Great things must be distinctly willed

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do. How is one to get through that wall - since pounding at it is of no use? In my opinion one has to undermine that wall, filing through it steadily and patiently. And there you are - how can one continue such work assiduously without being distracted or diverted, unless one reflects and orders one's life according to principles? And as it is with art so it is with other things. And great things are not something accidental, they must be distinctly willed.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Living with resolve and thoughtfulness

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

What matters is deeds, not some abstract idea. I only approve of principles and think them worth the trouble if they turn into deeds, and I think it is good to reflect and to try to be conscientious, because this concentrates a man's energies and combines his various actions into a whole. The people you describe would, I believe, be more resolute if they thought more clearly about what they were going to do, but for the rest I greatly prefer the likes of them to people who parade their principles without taking the slightest trouble or even thinking about putting them into practice. For the latter gain nothing from the most beautiful principles and the former are precisely the people who, if they come round to living with resolve and thoughtfulness, might do something great. For great things do not just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One must rally and take courage

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

It may be even more difficult in Paris than it is here to preserve some freshness in one's daily life, because to do so there means swimming even more against the tide. How many have not become desperate in Paris - calmly, rationally, logically and rightly desperate. . . .

All the more, all the more do I consider every effort in that direction worthy of respect. I also think it is possible to achieve success without having to start out with despair. Even though one loses out here and there, and even though one sometimes feels a kind of exhaustion; one must rally and take courage again, even though things should turn out differently from what one originally intended.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Solidarity

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

I don't know the books by Murger you mention, but I hope to become acquainted with them soon. . . .

The titles of those books greatly appeal to me, for instance, Scènes de la vie Bohème. How far we have strayed nowadays from la bohème of Gavarni's time! It seems to me that there was definitely something warmer and more light-hearted and alive about those days than there is today. But I cannot be certain, and there is much good nowadays, or there could be much more than in fact there is if there were greater solidarity.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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What touches us as human beings

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

I remember very well being most impressed by a drawing of Daumier's: an old man under the chestnut trees in the Champs Elysées (an illustration for Balzac), though the drawing was not all that important. What impressed me so much at the time was something so stout and manly in Daumier's conception, something that made me think It must be good to think and to feel like that and to overlook or ignore a multitude of things and to concentrate on what makes us sit up and think and what touches us as human beings more directly and personally than meadows or clouds.

That is also why I always feel attracted to the figures of both the English draughtsmen and of the English writers, whose Monday-morning-like soberness and studied restraint and prose and analysis is something solid and substantial to which one can hang on in days when one feels weak.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One feels dull-witted

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 October 1882

I entirely agree with what you say about those times now and then when one feels dull-witted in the face of nature or when nature seems to have stopped speaking to us.

I get the same feeling quite often and it sometimes helps if I then tackle something quite different. When I feel jaded with landscape or light effects, I tackle figures, and vice versa. Sometimes there is nothing for it but to wait for it to pass, but many a time I manage to do away with the numbness by changing my subject matter.

Letter 237
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I can't afford to be ill

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 10 October 1882

But how short a spring and summer we have really had. Sometimes it seems to me as if there had been nothing between last autumn and this one, but perhaps it is because of my illness lying between. I feel quite normal now, except when I am very tired; then I sometimes have a day or half a day when I feel indescribably weak and faint, much more so now than before. However, I do not pay attention to it any more, for I'm getting sick of it, and I can't afford to be ill, as I have too much work to do. At such times taking a long walk to Scheveningen or somewhere often helps me.

Letter 238
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I have to pay for it by being hard up

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 10 October 1882

I look forward to the winter with pleasure; it is a delightful season, when one can work regularly. I have some hope I shall get on well. . . . As you know, I carried painting and watercolors further than I originally intended, and now I have to pay for it by being hard up. But we shall get over that, and it must not be a reason for slacking off. I now vary my work by drawing a great deal from the model, though that is also rather expensive, but it fills my portfolios in proportion to its emptying my purse.

If you do not have the whole sum by the twentieth of the month, send me part of it; but I would rather receive it a day sooner than later, as I have to pay the week's rent on that day.

Letter 238
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Studying nature and wrestling with it

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 10 October 1882

I had a model for a few hours today, a boy with a spade, hod-carrier by trade, a very intriguing type - flat nose, thick lips and very coarse, straight hair - yet whenever he does something, there is grace in the figure, at least style and -character. I think I shall have some good models this winter; the owner of the yard has promised to send me the ones who come to ask for work, which often happens in the slack season. I am always glad to give them a few sixpences for an afternoon or morning, for that is just what I want. I see no other way than to work from the model. Of course one must not extinguish one's power of imagination, but the imagination is made sharper and more correct by continually studying nature and wrestling with it.

Letter 238
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One is glad to have a will

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 10 October 1882

It looks very different here today, but beautiful in its own way, . . . a somewhat yellowish yet grey sky, very chilly and wintry, hanging low; there are occasional bursts of rain, and many hungry crows are flying around. Still, a great deal of light falls on everything . . . .

I think, however, that in Paris everything probably looks much cleaner and less chilly. For the chilliness even penetrates the house, and when one lights a pipe, it seems damp from the drizzling rain. But it is very beautiful.

But it's on days like this that one would like to go and see some friend or would like a friend to come to the house; and it's on days like this that one has an empty feeling when one can go nowhere and nobody comes. But it's then that I feel how much the work means to me, how it gives tone to life, apart from approval or disapproval; and on days which would otherwise make one melancholy, one is glad to have a will.

Letter 238
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Stick to the point

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 10 October 1882

I agree with you in what you say about those small drawings, namely that the one of the little bench is done in more of an old-fashioned manner. But - I did it more or less on purpose, and will perhaps do it again sometime. . . . I believe that many artists, who are called old-fashioned now, will always remain green and fresh because their manner had, and will keep, its own raison d'être.

. . . The changes which the moderns have made in art are not always for the better; not everything means progress - neither in the works nor in the artists themselves - and often it seems to me that many lose sight of the origin and the goal, or in other words, they do not stick to the point.

Letter 238
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One is absolutely beaten

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 6-7 October 1883

It is a fatal thing that sometimes one has to plod for a whole year on a thing that might have been explained in two weeks by someone more advanced. It does depend on personal effort, but the road is easier or more difficult according to one's being alone or not. And the worst is when one absolutely has to know a thing, and on seeking information, has the other one turn his back on you. That is a terrible thing, but it does happen, and perhaps people call that “distinguished manners.” One is absolutely beaten then, and it is so painful to know in advance that one is sure to make a number of mistakes before finding out for oneself; all such losses of time and misery are expenditures which might have been avoided.

The result is that one never asks again, and will only depend on oneself; but it ought not to be so. Well, there are many things that ought “not to be so.”

Letter 331
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Trade is no handicraft

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 6-7 October 1883

But some things seem so queer to me that in general I suppose business to be out of joint, though I do not know exactly where and how.

Now you will perhaps say, Yes, but your painter's business is even more wretched, unsafe, and there, too, it may happen that personal energy or activity cannot do everything, for instance provide one with food for some time. All right, admitting this to be true, but if it is a case of providing for the simplest needs, trying a spot where life is cheaper instead of the very expensive city life won't make things worse. If I had just a little luck; if I found a few friends for my work - then, yes, then I would speak quite differently still.

. . . . I do not doubt for a moment that you would consider it a delightful thing to have a handicraft; and though at first it might bring you into the most impossible and queer relations with your real position as far as life in general is concerned, the glimpse of the future would give you a “qu'est-ce que ça me fait” - a future which, though it does not entirely depend on personal activity, nevertheless has a more direct connection with it than trade, which is no handicraft.

Letter 331
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Faith, resignation, steady work

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, c. 3 October 1883

Before I started out from Hoogeveen, I painted a few studies there, among others a large moss-roofed farm. For I had had paint sent from Furnée, as I thought on the subject like you wrote in your letter, that by absorbing myself in my work, and quite losing myself in it, my mood would change, and it has already greatly improved.

But at times - like those moments when you think of going to America - I think of enlisting for the East Indies; but those are miserable, gloomy moments, when one is overwhelmed by things, and I could wish you might see those silent moors, which I see here from the window, for such a thing calms one down, and inspires one to more faith, resignation, steady work.

Letter 330
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One needs all one's attention

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 8 October 1882

I am sure you would like the things I am doing now. What you would notice at once, as I do, is that I need a lot of figure studies; therefore I am working with all my strength and have a model almost every day. . . .

How beautiful it is outside now! I try my best to catch the autumn effects. I am writing you in a great hurry. I can assure you those compositions with figures are no joke, and I am deep in my work. It is like weaving - one needs all one's attention to keep the threads apart - one must manage to keep an eye on several things at once.

Letter 236
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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If things go wrong

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 1 October 1882

I did this sketch at dusk, but perhaps you can just make out the composition. Once it's all together, it's quickly drawn, but it wasn't all that easy to put it together and I wouldn't say that I've put it together as well as I would have liked. I should like to paint it, with the figures about one foot high, or a little less, and the composition a little wider.

But I don't know if I'll do it. It would need a large canvas, and if things go wrong it could mean quite a bit of money wasted. So, much as I should like to do it, I think that if I carry on with my typical figures, these things will come by themselves. They will spring naturally from the studies after the model, be it in this or in another form, but with the same sentiment.

Letter 235
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A whole series of failures

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 1 October 1882

Once again hard at work drawing. I sometimes think there is nothing nicer than drawing.

This is a part of that pews piece - there are other heads, of men, in the background. Things like this are difficult, however, and don't always work straight away. When they do work, it's sometimes the end result of a whole series of failures.

Letter 235
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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