Treacherous enchanted ground
Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 26 November 1883
I want to remind you of the English saying: "Fear the storm but dread the calm treacherous enchanted ground." Suppose you are carried along, gently and imperceptibly, by a current deviating from the straight course.
Brother! when you told me the other day, "I think in the matter of finance I am on the trail of a new conception" - what I thought of it was, in short, That's bad enough. I should not have thought so if you had written: I have discovered a number of energetic new artists, with whom I shall probably be able to do business, I should have thought it excellent, but - the field of finance - pardon my saying it - it is too much in the air for my taste.
Granted that my concerns are dependent on yours, yet it is not about this that my mind is uneasy at present - my uneasiness is about you and you alone - about you as a human being. And my question remains: Won't you suffer a loss and decline - as a human being?
I do not speak for myself but of another person out of the remote past. It is said that when he felt he was on enchanted ground and in an enchanted atmosphere, when he perceived that he was being unnerved, he resolutely left the island on a timber beam or a raft, and ventured on the high seas, thinking, the sea is less dangerous than this. And in my opinion this man was almighty wise.
Letter 342
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
I want to remind you of the English saying: "Fear the storm but dread the calm treacherous enchanted ground." Suppose you are carried along, gently and imperceptibly, by a current deviating from the straight course.
Brother! when you told me the other day, "I think in the matter of finance I am on the trail of a new conception" - what I thought of it was, in short, That's bad enough. I should not have thought so if you had written: I have discovered a number of energetic new artists, with whom I shall probably be able to do business, I should have thought it excellent, but - the field of finance - pardon my saying it - it is too much in the air for my taste.
Granted that my concerns are dependent on yours, yet it is not about this that my mind is uneasy at present - my uneasiness is about you and you alone - about you as a human being. And my question remains: Won't you suffer a loss and decline - as a human being?
I do not speak for myself but of another person out of the remote past. It is said that when he felt he was on enchanted ground and in an enchanted atmosphere, when he perceived that he was being unnerved, he resolutely left the island on a timber beam or a raft, and ventured on the high seas, thinking, the sea is less dangerous than this. And in my opinion this man was almighty wise.
Letter 342
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
Back to The Way of Vincent: Making art no matter what
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