"Let us hope for better times"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 July 1883

So now my first batch of photographs for you to show to some artists coincides with your "I can give you little hope for the future." Has anything happened? . . .

It wouldn't make me so melancholy, brother, if you hadn't added something which worries me. You say, "Let us hope for better times."

You see, in my opinion that is one of those things one should beware of. To hope for better times must not be a feeling but an action in the present. My actions depend on yours in that if you should stop sending money, I couldn't go on and should just be in a desperate position.

Just because I felt the hope for better times strongly, I threw all my strength into the present work, without thinking of the future other than to trust the work would find its wages, though we must pinch ourselves as to food, drink and clothes more and more every week.

There was the question of Scheveningen, the question of painting. I thought, "All right, let's carry it through." But now I could almost wish I had not started it, boy, for the expenses are heavy and I cannot meet them.

Letter 301
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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