"It will come to nothing"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 23 July 1882

Now when you come, brother, I shall have a few watercolors for you. It is damn nice working in the studio. Do you remember that last winter I told you you would have your watercolors within a year?

Those I have done now are simply to show you that my studying drawing, correct perspective and proportions, helps me make progress in watercolors. And for my part, I did them as an experiment to find out what progress I had made in watercolors after six months of drawing exclusively; and secondly, to see what I shall have to work harder on in that fundamental drawing which everything depends on. . . .

When judging me and my behavior, Tersteeg always starts with the fixed idea that I can do nothing and am good for nothing. I heard it from his own lips, "Oh, that painting of yours will be like all the other things you started, it will come to nothing."

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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