Your confidence in my future
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884
When I mention that I desire to look upon the 150 francs, or more or less as the case may be, as equal in value to what I send you, this is to a certain extent quite a private matter, and in no way do we touch upon the question whether my work has commercial value or not.
But in that case I shall be more justified in the eyes of Tom, Dick and Harry, and shall not have to put up with being reproached with idling away my time - or even being absolutely looked upon as "having no means of subsistence."
At the same time it is proof on your part of your confidence in my future, which, however, I shall most certainly not extort from you - and I repeat that however you may decide in this matter, it will have no influence on my opinion of the past, and that I shall never ignore your help during these years, but on the contrary, appreciate it highly.
But you will have to decide quite independently whether our relations will be continued in the future or not.
Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
When I mention that I desire to look upon the 150 francs, or more or less as the case may be, as equal in value to what I send you, this is to a certain extent quite a private matter, and in no way do we touch upon the question whether my work has commercial value or not.
But in that case I shall be more justified in the eyes of Tom, Dick and Harry, and shall not have to put up with being reproached with idling away my time - or even being absolutely looked upon as "having no means of subsistence."
At the same time it is proof on your part of your confidence in my future, which, however, I shall most certainly not extort from you - and I repeat that however you may decide in this matter, it will have no influence on my opinion of the past, and that I shall never ignore your help during these years, but on the contrary, appreciate it highly.
But you will have to decide quite independently whether our relations will be continued in the future or not.
Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
Labels: definite arrangement, other, practicality, work
1 Comments:
For those interested is some very-informative background information concerning how and why, during the last seventy days of his life, Vincent van Gogh was able to produce over seventy incredibly-beautiful final masterpieces, the recent historical novel "The Last Van Gogh" (Penguin) by the internationally acclaimed author Alyson Richman provides some amazing insight. The author traveled to the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise on a number of occasions and meticulously researched the period during which Van Gogh lived there, even interviewing a number of the village’s elders, who knew his last muse, Magaret Gachet, the daughter of the homeopathic doctor who was treating Van Gogh at the time. It's truly an amazing novel, beautifully written and I recommend it highly. It just came out in paperback a few months ago. (I got mine at Amazon.com.) For anybody who loves Van Gogh’s works, this book should prove unbelievably fascinating. [Incidentally, Ms. Richman is also the author of the highly-reviewed novels “The Mask Carver’s Son” (Bloomsbury – 2000) and “Swedish Tango” (Simon & Schuster – 2004).]
Paul
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