We will show that we are men

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, early January 1886

Now, shall we say like impotent dullards and blockheads, "We cannot do it, we have no money - there is nothing doing, I tell you No." This is what we'll say - and please let's both say it together, Personally we will endure poverty for it, and suffer want as long as it is necessary, like one does in a besieged city which one does not intend to surrender, but we will show that we are men.

Either one is brave or one is a coward. We must carry things to such a height that the public begins to like it.

It is not taking trouble that I am afraid of. But I believe that you have so accustomed yourself to thinking it all right that I am always to be neglected that you forget too easily how I have not had my due for so many years already.

Letter 443
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I must paint

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, early January 1886

Are you quite satisfied with your own argument when at the beginning of the year you say, to my disappointment, "I have so much to pay, you must try to manage till the end of the month."

Am I less than your creditors? - who must wait, they or I??? If one of us must wait, which belongs to the human possibilities.

Do you realize how heavy are my burdens which the work demands every day, how difficult it is to get the models, how expensive the painting materials are? Do you realize that sometimes it is almost literally impossible for me to keep going? and that I must paint; that too much depends on my continuing to work on here with aplomb immediately and without hesitation?

Too much hesitation might make me fall in a way which I could not redress for a long time. My situation is threatened from every side, and it can only be saved by working on vigorously.

The only way to win at present is with very good work, with something that is not ordinary. That higher work costs more in money, in trouble, and in strenuous exertion; but now more than ever it is the only way.

Letter 443
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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