A definite agreement

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

I said in my letter of the end of January that I should be unwilling to go on in the same way as up to then, that is to say, without a definite agreement.

. . . Nothing could be more pleasant to me than to go on in the same way on condition that a definite agreement was made about the supply of work. And that in order to make a trial I should send a number of things toward the beginning of March.

Your reply was evasive, it certainly was not straightforward, I mean it was not something like this: "Vincent, I see the reasonableness of a number of your grievances, and I approve of your proposal to make an agreement that every month you will send me a number of drawings that you consider equal in value to the 150 francs I am in the habit of sending you, so that you will be able to look upon this money as earned money."

Most positively I noticed that you did not simply write something like this!

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what