More than ordinary patience
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 29 October 1883
I feel my own incurable melancholy, caused by certain developments in the past, and then they want to tell me that my mood is "the rash fanaticism of youth"! Far, very far from it. In your mood one is "in damned earnest," as the English say. You do not expect to find something soft or sweet, no, you know that you are in for a fight against something like a rock, no, you know that it is impossible to conquer nature and to make her more amenable without a terrible struggle and without more than ordinary patience.
Letter 339a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
I feel my own incurable melancholy, caused by certain developments in the past, and then they want to tell me that my mood is "the rash fanaticism of youth"! Far, very far from it. In your mood one is "in damned earnest," as the English say. You do not expect to find something soft or sweet, no, you know that you are in for a fight against something like a rock, no, you know that it is impossible to conquer nature and to make her more amenable without a terrible struggle and without more than ordinary patience.
Letter 339a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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