A good long look at some potato plants

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 11 July 1883

I find Breitner's stuff objectionable because the imagination behind it is clumsy and meaningless and has virtually no contact with reality. I think it's terribly ugly. But I look on it as the result of a spell of ill-health. . . .

I wish I could provide him with some company and diversion, I wish I could share his ups and downs more often and perhaps cultivate his friendship a bit more. . . .

The cure for him would be to take a good long look at some potato plants, which have lately had such a deep and distinctive color and tone, instead of driving himself mad looking at pieces of yellow satin and bits of gold leather. Well, we shall have to wait and see. He is intelligent enough, but he persists all the same with a sort of eccentric prejudice. If he were merely departing from normality with a rational motive, well and good, but with him it is also a question of no longer taking trouble with his work. I think it is a very bad business and just hope he will come out of it all right, but he has badly lost his way.

Letter 299
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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