I don't ask high prices

Vincent van Gogh to Mr. Furnee, from Nuenen, 3 August 1885

I work too hard to believe that I work in vain. . . .

I buy nearly everything cash down and I regulate my requirements so much in accordance with my ready money that now and then weeks pass without my spending a single guilder except on bread. . . . I have no friends - and yet I tell you, do not despair of getting your money!

But could you manage to show some of my work at The Hague? That would be the best thing, and in this way you would serve your own interests as well as mine. I don't ask high prices, and the amount in question is not big. And therefore I suggest you try it. I haven't any money, less than ever before, as this is a period in which I am making myself independent of all subsidies.

Letter 419a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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