Following one's nature
Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Paris, Summer-Fall 1887
Anyway, do weigh up carefully if those with a feeling for art, and trying to work at it, wouldn't do better to declare that they are doing it because they were born with that feeling, cannot help themselves and are following their nature, than make out they are doing it for some noble purpose. Doesn't it say in "A la Recherche du Bonheur" that evil lies in our own nature - which we have not created ourselves? I think it so admirable of the moderns that they do not moralize like the old ones. Thus many people are appalled and scandalized by "Vice and virtue are chemical products, like sugar and vitriol."
Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
Anyway, do weigh up carefully if those with a feeling for art, and trying to work at it, wouldn't do better to declare that they are doing it because they were born with that feeling, cannot help themselves and are following their nature, than make out they are doing it for some noble purpose. Doesn't it say in "A la Recherche du Bonheur" that evil lies in our own nature - which we have not created ourselves? I think it so admirable of the moderns that they do not moralize like the old ones. Thus many people are appalled and scandalized by "Vice and virtue are chemical products, like sugar and vitriol."
Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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