Aiming for the truth

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, 28 December 1884

She's a girl from a cafe-chantant and yet the expression I was looking for was somewhat "ecce homo-like." But that was because I was aiming for the truth, especially in the expression, though I also wanted to put my own thoughts into it. When the model arrived, it was obvious she had had quite a few busy nights - and she said something that was fairly characteristic: "For me, champagne doesn't cheer me up, it makes me very sad." Then I knew how matters stood and tried to produce something voluptuous and at the same time heart-rending.

I imagine that no matter what the girls may be, one can make money painting them, sooner than anything else. There's no denying that they can be damned beautiful, and that it is in keeping with the times that just that kind of painting should be gaining ground. Nor can there be any objections to that from even the highest artistic standpoint - painting human beings, that was the old Italian art, that was Millet and that is Breton.

The only question is whether one should start from the soul or from the clothes.

Letter 442
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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