What becomes of the policeman?
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 2 July 1883
I hope you will write me in detail about Les Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvre - it must have been a good thing to have seen such a show.
And when one thinks how at the time there were a few persons whose character, intention and genius were rather suspect in the public's opinion - persons about whom the most absurd things were told, Millet, Corot, Daubigny, etc., who were thought of the way the village policeman views a stray shaggy dog, or a tramp without a passport - and time passes, and voila "les cent chefs-d'oeuvre," and if a hundred are not enough, then innumerable ones. And what becomes of the policeman? Very little remains of them except a number of summonses as curiosities. Yet I think the history of great men is tragic - though it's true that they did not meet only village policemen in their lives - for usually they are no longer alive when their work is publicly acknowledged, and for a long time during their lives they are under a kind of depression because of the opposition and the difficulties of struggling through life. And so whenever I hear of such a public acknowledgment of the merits of such and such a one, I think the more vividly of the quiet, somewhat somber figures of those who personally had few friends, and then, in their simplicity, I find them even greater and more tragic.
Letter 297
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
I hope you will write me in detail about Les Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvre - it must have been a good thing to have seen such a show.
And when one thinks how at the time there were a few persons whose character, intention and genius were rather suspect in the public's opinion - persons about whom the most absurd things were told, Millet, Corot, Daubigny, etc., who were thought of the way the village policeman views a stray shaggy dog, or a tramp without a passport - and time passes, and voila "les cent chefs-d'oeuvre," and if a hundred are not enough, then innumerable ones. And what becomes of the policeman? Very little remains of them except a number of summonses as curiosities. Yet I think the history of great men is tragic - though it's true that they did not meet only village policemen in their lives - for usually they are no longer alive when their work is publicly acknowledged, and for a long time during their lives they are under a kind of depression because of the opposition and the difficulties of struggling through life. And so whenever I hear of such a public acknowledgment of the merits of such and such a one, I think the more vividly of the quiet, somewhat somber figures of those who personally had few friends, and then, in their simplicity, I find them even greater and more tragic.
Letter 297
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
Labels: accept, hope, negative reaction, other
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