I shall always have an aim

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, c. 12-16 January 1886

When you get right down to it, I'll admit that when one is working exclusively from nature, something more is needed: the facility of composing, the knowledge of the figure, but, after all, I do not believe I have been drudging absolutely in vain all these years. I feel a certain power within me, because wherever I may be, I shall always have an aim - painting people as I see and know them.

Whether impressionism has already had its last say or not - to stick to the term impressionism - I always imagine that many new artists in the figure may arise, and I begin to think it more and more desirable that, in a difficult time like the present, one seeks one's security in the deeper understanding of the highest art.

For there is, relatively speaking, higher and lower art; people are more important than anything else, and are in fact much more difficult to paint, too.

Letter 444
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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It's lucky for me

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 2 January 1884

As to what you say about my perhaps becoming quite isolated, I do not say that this will not happen, I expect little else, and shall be content if life remains possible and bearable for me.

But I declare to you that I should not consider this a deserved fate, for I believe that after all I have never done, and shall never do, anything to make me lose the right to feel one with my fellow creatures.

Others would be greatly to blame for it too. Well, I try to look at myself as if I were somebody else, that is to say, objectively, so that I try to see my own shortcomings as well as perhaps their compensations.

Isolation is bad enough, it is a kind of prison. To what extent I shall become so cannot be guessed now with any degree of certainty. Nor do you say so, in fact.

I for my part often prefer to be with people who do not even know the world, for instance the peasants, the weavers, etc., rather than being with those of the more civilized world. It's lucky for me.

Letter 351
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Consoling things

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Saint-Remy, 15 December 1889

I remember the picture by Manet you speak of. The “Portrait of a Man” by Puvis de Chavannes has always remained the ideal in figure to me, an old man reading a yellow novel, and beside him a rose and some watercolor brushes in a glass of water - and the “Portrait of a Lady” that he had at the same exhibition, a woman already old, but exactly as Michelet felt, There is no such thing as an old woman. These are consoling things, to see modern life as something bright, in spite of its inevitable griefs.

Last year around this time I certainly did not think that I should ever get over it as much as this.

Letter 617
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Painting, as it is called

Vincent van Gogh to his mother, from Saint-Remy, 10 December 1889

As for the exhibition in Brussels, it does not leave me indifferent because I shall have a few pictures from here in it which, though made in quite a different region, remain just as if they were painted say in Zundert, or Calmpthout, and I think they could also be understood by people who haven't any knowledge of painting, as it is called. And so one may say, It would have been simpler if I had stayed quietly in North Brabant - but it is as it is, and what can one do?

Letter 616
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I want to be myself

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

I think you value the truth enough for me to speak freely to you. For much the same reasons that if I paint peasant women I want them to be peasant women - so I want to get a whore's expression when I paint whores.

That is precisely why a whore's head by Rembrandt struck me so forcefully. Because he had caught that mysterious smile in such an infinitely beautiful way, with a gravity of his very own - the magician of magicians.

This is something new for me, and I want to achieve it at all costs. Manet has done it and Courbet - well, sacrebleu, I've the same ambition too, the more so as I've felt the infinite beauty of the study of women by the giants of literature - Zola, Daudet, de Goncourt, Balzac - in the very marrow of my bones.

Well, be that as it may - I want to get on at all costs, and - I want to be myself. I am feeling obstinate, too, and no longer care what people say about me or about my work.

Letter 442
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Just watching the people's high spirits

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

My thoughts are full of Rembrandt and Hals these days, not because I see many of their paintings but because I see so many types among the people here that remind me of that period. I still keep going to those dance halls to look at the heads of the woman and of the sailors and soldiers. One pays an entrance fee of 20 or 30 centimes and drinks a glass of beer - for there isn't much hard drinking and one can have a firs-rate time all evening, or at least I can, just watching the people's high spirits.

Letter 442
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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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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Beginning with practically nothing

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, c. 19 December 1884

Trade is so old-fashioned and…three times moldy.

There must be renovation, for the old systems no longer work.

The prices, the public, everything needs renovation, and the future is to work cheaply for the people, because the ordinary art lovers seem to get more and more tight-fisted.

Starting with capital so very often leads only to losing everything at first, including one's courage and energy; whereas beginning with practically nothing rather makes one's character firmer and more decided.

Letter 441
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I prefer people's eyes to cathedrals

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, c. 19 December 1884

I showed my view of “Het Steen” to another dealer, who liked its tone and color, but he was too engrossed in making up his inventory, and besides, he has little room, but he asked me to come back after New Year's. It is just the thing for foreigners who want to have a souvenir of Antwerp, and for that reason I shall make even more city views of that kind.

So yesterday I made a few drawings of a spot with a view of the Cathedral. I also made a little one of the Park.

But I prefer painting people's eyes to cathedrals, for there is something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn and imposing the latter may be - a human soul, be it that of a poor beggar or of a streetwalker, is more interesting to me.

Letter 441
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One can be mistaken

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, c. 15 December 1884

At the museum there is a portrait of Delroche painted by Portaels. During his life he seemed such a big man, but how hollow and empty he proved to be afterward! and Courbet did not seem serious during their lives, yet how they proved themselves to be real painters!

By a curious mishap an accident has happened to the portrait of Delaroche, so that a hole was cut right in the middle of the forehead. It looks well, and really seems to belong to it. Ah! there is quite a curious race of people of whom one would not oppose at certain moments that they are actually absolutely hollow and empty. One can be mistaken. And sometimes it is quite refreshing to perceive one has been mistaken, though then one has to begin all over again from the very beginning.

Letter 440
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I will try to keep a straight course

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 15-17 December 1884

Do you remember how in the very beginning I always spoke to you about my great respect and sympathy for the work of Father de Groux? Of late I think of him more than ever. De Groux is appreciated as little as, for instance, Thijs Mans. He is different though, but this they have in common, that they met with violent opposition.

In these days - whether the public is wiser now I can't tell, but this much I know, that it is not at all superfluous to weigh seriously one's thoughts and one's actions.

If it had pleased de Groux at that time to dress his Brabant characters in medieval costumes, he would have run parallel with Leys in genius, and also in fortune. However, he did not do so, and now, years afterwards, there is a considerable reaction against that medievalism. But the realism not wanted then is in demand now, and there is more need of it than ever. The realism that has character and a serious sentiment.

I can tell you that for my part I will try to keep a straight course, and will paint the most simple, the most common things.

Letter 390
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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That icy coldness

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, October 1884

Read Zola's description of women in a room in the twilight - most of the women aged between 30 and 50 - such a sombre, mysterious place. I find it splendid, indeed sublime.

But to me, Millet's Angelus is just as sublime, with that same twilight, that same infinite emotion - or that single figure of Breton's in the Luxembourg, or his "Source." . . .

Oh, I am no friend of present-day Christianity, though its Founder was sublime - I have seen through present-day Christianity only too well. That icy coldness hypnotized even me, in my youth - but I have taken my revenge since then. How? By worshiping the love which they, the theologians, call sin, by respecting a whore, etc., and not too many would-be respectable, pious ladies. To some, woman is heresy and diabolical. To me she is just the opposite.

Letter 378
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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What will make me more completely human?

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 28 October 1883

I look upon the real human feelings, life in harmony with, not against, nature, as the true civilization, which I respect as such. I ask, what will make me more completely human?

Zola says, "I, as an artist, want to live as vigorously as possible - I want to live", without mental reservation - naive as a child, no, not as a child, as an artist - with good will, however life presents itself, I shall find something in it, I will try my best on it. Now look at all those studied little mannerisms, all that convention, how exceedingly conceited it really is, how absurd, a man thinking he knows everything and that things go according to his idea, as if there were not in all things of life a "je ne sais quoi" of great goodness, and also an element of evil, which we feel to be infinitely above us, infinitely greater, infinitely mightier than we are.

How fundamentally wrong is the man who doesn't feel himself small, who doesn't realize he is but an atom.

Letter 336
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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My revenge

Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Arles, 16 September 1888

My dear sister, it is my belief that it is actually one's duty to paint the rich and magnificent aspects of nature. We need gaiety and happiness, hope and love.

The more ugly, old, mean, ill, poor I get, the more I want to take my revenge by producing a brilliant color, well arranged, resplendent. Jewelers too get old and ugly before they learn how to arrange precious stones properly. And arranging the colors in a painting in order to make them vibrate and to enhance their value by their contrasts is something like arranging jewels properly or designing costumes. You will see that by making a habit of looking at Japanese pictures you will love to make up bouquets and to do things with flowers all the more.

Letter W07
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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In hope of making a discovery

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Arles, 3 September 1888

So I am always between two currents of thought, first the material difficulties, turning round and round to make a living; and second, the study of color. I am always in hope of making a discovery there, to express the love of two lovers by a marriage of two complementary colors, their mingling and their opposition, the mysterious vibrations of kindred tones. To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a somber background.

To express hope by some star, the eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. Certainly there is nothing in that of trompe d'oeil realism, but isn't it something that actually exists?

Letter 531
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Something of the eternal

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Arles, 3 September 1888

Oh, my dear boy, sometimes I know so well what I want. I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, ill as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life - the power to create.

And if, defrauded of the power to create physically, a man tries to create thoughts in place of children, he is still very much part of humanity.

And in a picture I want to say something comforting as music is comforting. I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize, and which we seek to confer by the actual radiance and vibration of our colorings.

Ah! portraiture, portraiture with the thought, the soul of the model in it, that is what I think must come.

Letter 531
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Following one's nature

Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Paris, Summer-Fall 1887

Anyway, do weigh up carefully if those with a feeling for art, and trying to work at it, wouldn't do better to declare that they are doing it because they were born with that feeling, cannot help themselves and are following their nature, than make out they are doing it for some noble purpose. Doesn't it say in "A la Recherche du Bonheur" that evil lies in our own nature - which we have not created ourselves? I think it so admirable of the moderns that they do not moralize like the old ones. Thus many people are appalled and scandalized by "Vice and virtue are chemical products, like sugar and vitriol."

Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Frustrated by circumstances

Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Paris, Summer-Fall 1887

Art often seems very exalted and, as you say, sacred. But the same can be said of love. And the only problem is that not everybody thinks about it in this way, and that those who do feel something of it, and let themselves be carried away by it, have to suffer so much, firstly because they are misunderstood, but quite as often because their inspiration is so often inadequate, or their work is frustrated by circumstances. One ought to be able to do two or even more things at once. And there are certainly times when it is far from clear to us that art should be something sacred or good.

Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Why is art so sacred?

Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Paris, Summer-Fall 1887

Why are religion or justice or art so sacred? People who do nothing but fall in love are perhaps more serious and saintly than those who sacrifice their love and their hearts to an idea. Be that as it may, in order to write a book, do a deed, paint a picture with some life in it, one has to be alive oneself. And so, unless you never want to progress, study is a matter of very secondary importance for you. Enjoy yourself as much as you can, have as many diversions as you can, and remember that what people demand in art nowadays is something very much alive, with strong color and great intensity. So intensify your own health and strength and life a little; that is the best study.

Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Shame and disgrace

Vincent van Gogh to Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Paris, Summer-Fall 1887

And above all I find it alarming that you believe you must study in order to write. No, my dear little sister, learn how to dance, or fall in love with one or more of the notary's clerks, officers, in short, any who are within your reach - rather, much rather commit any number of follies than study in Holland. It serves absolutely no other purpose than to make people slow-witted, and I won't hear of it.

For my part, I still continue to have the most impossible and highly unsuitable love affairs, from which as a rule I come away with little more than shame and disgrace. And in my own opinion I am absolutely right to do this, since, as I keep telling myself, in years gone by, when I ought to have been in love, I gave myself up to religious and socialist affairs, and considered art holier than I do now.

Letter W01
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A good long look at some potato plants

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 11 July 1883

I find Breitner's stuff objectionable because the imagination behind it is clumsy and meaningless and has virtually no contact with reality. I think it's terribly ugly. But I look on it as the result of a spell of ill-health. . . .

I wish I could provide him with some company and diversion, I wish I could share his ups and downs more often and perhaps cultivate his friendship a bit more. . . .

The cure for him would be to take a good long look at some potato plants, which have lately had such a deep and distinctive color and tone, instead of driving himself mad looking at pieces of yellow satin and bits of gold leather. Well, we shall have to wait and see. He is intelligent enough, but he persists all the same with a sort of eccentric prejudice. If he were merely departing from normality with a rational motive, well and good, but with him it is also a question of no longer taking trouble with his work. I think it is a very bad business and just hope he will come out of it all right, but he has badly lost his way.

Letter 299
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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My temperament and personal feeling

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 2 July 1883

I think of Tersteeg's opinion that I must make watercolors; supposing I myself were wrong, and tried with all good will to change my mind, yet I cannot understand how these figures of the man with the sack, of the sower, of the old potato digger, of the wheelbarrow, of the man burning weeds, would retain their individuality if I made them in watercolor. The result would be very mediocre, the kind of mediocrity which I don't want to surrender myself to. Now there is at all events some character in them, something which - be it from afar - is in harmony with what Lhermitte, for instance, seeks.

Watercolor is not the most sympathetic means for him who particularly wants to express the boldness, the vigor, and the robustness of the figures. It is different when one seeks tone or color exclusively, then watercolor is excellent. Now I must admit that one could make different studies of those same figures done from another point of view (namely tone and color) and with another intention - but the question is, if my temperament and personal feeling primarily draw me toward the character, the structure, the action of the figures, can one blame me if, following this emotion, I don't express myself in watercolor, but in a drawing with only black or brown?

Letter 297
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Men whose names are unknown

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 2 July 1883

Theo, when you come to the studio someday, I shall be able to show you a collection which you certainly won't find everywhere. I can show you something which might be called the "Hundred Masterpieces" in wood engraving by modern artists. The work of men whose names are unknown even to most connoisseurs.

Who knows Buckmann, who knows the two Greens, who knows Regamey's drawings? Only a very few.

Seen together, one wonders at that firmness of drawing, that personal character, that serious conception and that penetration and artistic elevation of the most ordinary figures and subjects found in the streets, in the market place, in a hospital or an almshouse.

Letter 297
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The love for humanity

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 23 July 1882

I have already spoken a few words about the love for humanity which some people possess, for instance, Mme. Francois in the book by Zola. However, I haven't any benevolent plans or projects for trying to help everybody, but I am not ashamed to say (though I know quite well that the word benevolence is in bad repute) that for my part I have always felt and will feel the need to love some fellow creature. Preferably, I don't know why, an unhappy, forsaken or lonely creature.

Once I nursed for six weeks or two months a poor miserable miner who had been burned. I shared my food for a whole winter with a poor old man, and heaven knows what else, and now there is Sien. But so far I have never thought all this foolish or wrong. I think it so natural and right that I cannot understand people being so indifferent to each other in general. I must add that if I were wrong in doing this, you were also wrong in helping me so faithfully - it would be too absurd if this were wrong. I have always believed that "love thy neighbor as thyself" is no exaggeration, but a normal condition. So be it. And you know that I shall make every effort to try to sell my drawings soon, for the very reason that I do not want to abuse your kindness.

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Humanity is the salt of life

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 23 July 1882

I am glad that you have been reading Le Ventre de Paris . . . . I think it's splendid. I just want to ask you what you think of Mme. Francois, who lifted poor Florent into her cart and took him home when he was lying unconscious in the middle of the road where the greengrocers' carts were passing.

Though the other greengrocers cried, Let that drunkard lie, we have no time to pick men up out of the gutter, etc.

That figure of Mme. Francois stands out so calmly and nobly and sympathetically all through the book, against the background of the Halles, in contrast with the brutal egoism of the other women.

See, Theo, I think Mme. Francois is truly humane; and I have done, and will do, for Sien what I think someone like Mme. Francois would have done for Florent if he had not loved politics more than her. Look here, that humanity is the salt of life; I should not care to live without it, that's all.

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The so-called experts

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, June 1885

I am very glad to hear that Serret is a painter, about whom you had already written things which I perfectly well remember, but the name had escaped me. . . . As to what Serret says, I quite agree with him - I shall just send him a line, because I should like to become friends with him. As I told you already, I have been busy drawing figures recently; I will send them especially for the sake of Serret, to show him that I am far from indifferent to the unity and the form of a figure. . . .

Serret may agree with you that to paint good pictures and to sell them are two separate things. But it is not at all true. When at last the public saw Millet, all his work together, then the public both in Paris and in London was enthusiastic.

And who were the persons that had suppressed and refused Millet? The art dealers, the so-called experts.

Letter 413
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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No stauncher friend than duty

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883

Look, man has no stauncher friend than his duty, and though at times it may be a rough and stern taskmaster, as long as one works in its service, one will not easily become a bankrupt.

. . . There are certain cases, like yours, in which the important thing is to save a life - look, in such cases Father himself would not know what to do, or rather, I actually believe that in his heart too "I vote for life" would carry the day. Ah! you know, once in a while when I am in doubt, I ask myself, Would you be a judge passing a death sentence? And every time I find only one answer: No, once and for all, I am for abolishing death sentences, legal or otherwise, ostracism and other capital punishments. We are called on to preserve life, to respect life; that is our duty, and we can always justify it - even if the world puts us in the wrong and things do not turn out to our advantage.

Letter 290
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Sticking it out

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883

You should thoroughly prepare yourself for the fact that you will gradually discover quite different things in the woman whom you are taking care of - that is in her character. And speaking my mind unreservedly, I say you will be disappointed in her, and perhaps you will say to her, "How you have changed!" and she will say the same thing to you. And then I think it will mean a step in the right direction if - notwithstanding this "change" on both sides - neither of you is annoyed with the other, and you learn to put up with things on her part, and she learns to put up with things on your part - or, in other words, if there is a mutual overlooking of shortcomings.

Look, this is a crisis nobody can escape, and it is a crisis which may cause some to become more firmly attached to each other, whereas on the other hand, it may cause others to become estranged by it, which is always a very deplorable thing to have happen once one has started. In short, sticking it out is not always an easy thing to do.

Letter 290
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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We must not let our hands be idle

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883

This morning I was in a charitable home, boy, to see a little old woman (with whom I had to arrange about posing), and thus far she has brought up two natural children of her daughter's who is a so-called kept woman. Several things struck me: in the first place, the neglected appearance of the poor little creatures, though the grandmother does her best, and many are much worse off; and secondly, I was deeply touched by the devotion of that little grandmother, and it struck me that when an old woman puts her wrinkled hands to such a task, we men must not let ours be idle.

Letter 290
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Worse than ordinary people

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883

You and I also sometimes do things which are perhaps sinful; but for all that, we are not merciless, and we feel pity, and for the very reason that we do not consider ourselves perfect and know how things can happen, we do not revile fallen or frail women as the clergymen do, as if they themselves were the only ones at fault. And now this woman of yours is, moreover, a decent woman of a middle-class family, and I really think Father's error serious.

Suppose there were objections - my opinion is that Father, because he is a shepherd, ought to urge you on to help her and put up with difficulties for the sake of her preservation. One ought to find comfort from people like Father when society does not give comfort - but not they! - they are even worse than ordinary people.

Letter 288
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The most ungodly men in our society

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883

I should like to be proud of Father, because he is truly a poor village preacher in the pure sense of the Gospel, but I think it so rotten that Father stoops to such considerations as something not being in keeping with "the dignity of his calling."

My opinion is that one might expect Father to co-operate as soon as the question of saving a woman arises. It would be right to be on her side, because she is poor and deserted.

By not doing so, Father commits an enormous error: it is inhuman for anyone to do such a thing; doubly so, however, if he is a servant of the Gospel.

Thwarting the interests of such a woman, preventing her rescue, is monstrous.

Oh, I know very well that nearly all clergymen would use the same language as Father - and for this reason I reckon the whole lot of them among the most ungodly men in our society.

Letter 288
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Be humble and contented with simple things

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883

In point of fact, clergymen are among the most unbelieving people in society and dry materialists. Perhaps not right in the pulpit, but in private matters. From a moral point of view one might be allowed to object to a marriage if real want of bread in its literal sense were to be expected; but as I see it, such an objection utterly loses its moral justification as soon as there is no question of actual want of bread. And it would be ridiculous to predict want of bread in your case.

Suppose somebody like old Mr. Goupil should raise monetary objections - from his point of view as a rich merchant, one could not expect anything else.

But coming from Father and Mother, who ought to be humble and contented with simple things, I think their speaking that way very wicked, and I feel something like shame at their behavior.

I wish we only strove for peace in our homes, and stinted ourselves rather than strain after a high position. And used our energy to increase our spiritual refinement and humaneness, but were contented with the most simple things as a matter of principle.

Letter 288
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"The sweat of thy brow"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 21 May 1883

I am glad you are having a good time just now - "Le Paradou" must have been glorious indeed. Yes, I should not mind trying my hand at such a thing and I do not doubt you two would be very good models.

However, I prefer to see diggers digging, and have found glory outside Paradise, where one thinks more of the severer: "Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy brow."

But I think the beauty of one increases when compared to the other.

Letter 286
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The modern Gospel

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 21 May 1883

What I think excellent too is that one sees books in your studio: Hugo, Zola, Dickens - figure painter's books. I shall send you Erckmann-Chatrian's Histoire d'un Paysan. The French Revolution - that is the central point - the Constitution of 1789 being the modern Gospel, no less sublime than that of 1 A.D. And how one can be a figure painter without feeling something of it is incomprehensible to me - and I find a certain emptiness in these figure painters' studios where the modern writings are absent.

Letter R35
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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As a whole

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 21 May 1883

Here follows a passage from Dickens that expresses forcefully what goes on in the mind of a figure painter while he is working on a composition:

"I was occupied with this story during many working hours of two years. I must have been very ill employed, if I could not leave its merits and demerits as a whole to express themselves on its being read as a whole. But, as it is not unreasonable to suppose that I may have held its various threads with a more continuous attention than any one else can have given to them during its desultory publication, it is not unreasonable to ask that the weaving may be looked at in its complete state, and with the pattern finished" - Preface, Little Dorrit.

Here you are, my dear friend, beautifully expressed, how a figure painter deserves to be looked at - as a whole.

This is how I looked at your work today, and my sympathy for you was confirmed by it. And as for you, I want you to go on looking at me as a whole too, which many others don't do.

Letter R35
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The more one loves

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 8 May 1883

I just can't believe that a painter should have no other task and no other duty than painting only. What I mean to say is, whereas many consider, for instance, reading books and such things that they call a waste of time, on the contrary, I am of the opinion that, far from causing one to work less or less well, rather it makes one work more and better to try to broaden one's mind in a field that is so closely allied with this work - and that at any rate it is a matter of importance, which greatly influences one's work, from whatever point of view one looks at things, and whatever conception one may have of life.

I believe that the more one loves, the more one will act; for love that is only a feeling I would never recognize as love.

Letter R34
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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In my eyes she is beautiful

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 28 May 1882

I am very much pleased with the model I have; I mean that woman who was in my studio when you were here, for she is learning more every day, and understands me. . . .

Oh, there is gossip enough, because I am always in her company, but why should that bother me? - I never had such a good assistant as this ugly (???), faded woman. In my eyes she is beautiful, and I find in her exactly what I want; her life has been rough, and sorrow and adversity have put their marks upon her - now I can do something with her.

When the earth is not plowed, you can get no harvest from it. She has been plowed - and so I find more in her than in a crowd of unplowed ones.

Letter R08
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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She understands me

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 28 May 1882

Rather interesting too are the public soup kitchens and under all circumstances the third-class waiting rooms. If I did not have to make city views for a living, I would do nothing but figure drawings these days, but I have not found anybody who would buy them, and regularly I have to pay for models, though now and then I can get people to pose for nothing.

I am very much pleased with the model I have; I mean that woman who was in my studio when you were here, for she is learning more every day, and understands me. For instance, when something goes wrong and I fly into a rage and get up and say, "Damn it, it's all wrong!" or something even worse than that, she does not take it as a personal affront, as of course most others would, but lets me calm down and start all over again. And she undergoes the tedious work of finding the right light and the right pose patiently. So I think her a honey.

Letter R08
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I hate skepticism and sentimentality

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 28 May 1882

Speaking for myself, I hate skepticism just as much as sentimentality; I do not want to suggest that the artists here are skeptics or cynics, but sometimes they seem to be, and take on a certain air of it, whereas confronted with nature they are as serious and devout as can be. However, I often catch myself making the same mistake, after which I lapse into sentimentality on the rebound, more than I ever intend to, so that I have hardly a right to criticize them.

How much that is beautiful - in the sense of picturesque - is disappearing these days! The other day I read something by the son of Charles Dickens; he said, "If my father were to come back, he would find little of the London he described, the 'old' London is disappearing - is being 'sanified.'" And in our country it is just the same - those nice little courts - they are being replaced by rows of houses, in the highest degree unpicturesque, unless they are still being built, for then they are, what with the sheds and scaffolding and workmen, very pleasant to look at.

Letter R08
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Getting on better with people

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, c 15 May 1884

Recently I have been getting on better with people here than I did at first, which is of great importance to me, for one decidedly needs some distraction, and if one feels too lonely, the work always suffers from it; however, perhaps one must be prepared for it not to last.

But I feel quite optimistic about it, it seems to me that in general the people in Nuenen are better than those in Etten or Helvoirt; there is more sincerity here, at least that is my impression after having been here for some time.

It is true the people here look at things from a clergyman's point of view, but in such a way that I, for my part, don't feel any scruple in putting up with it.

Letter 368
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A genuine peasant painting

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 30 April 1885

I've held the threads of this fabric in my hands all winter long and searched for the definitive pattern - and although it is now a fabric of rough and coarse appearance, the threads have none the less been chosen with care and according to certain rules. And it might just turn out to be a genuine peasant painting. I know that it is. But anyone who prefers to have his peasants looking namby-pamby had best suit himself. Personally, I am convinced that in the long run one gets better results from painting them in all their coarseness than from introducing a conventional sweetness. . . .

In my opinion, it would be wrong to give a painting of peasant life a conventional polish. If a peasant painting smells of bacon, smoke, potato steam, fine - that's not unhealthy - if a stable reeks of manure - all right, that's what a stable is all about - if a field has the smell of ripe corn or potatoes or of guano and manure - that's properly healthy, especially for city dwellers. Such pictures might prove helpful to them. But a painting of peasant life should not be perfumed.

Letter 404
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Without knowing why

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 30 April 1885

The point is that I've tried to bring out the idea that these people eating potatoes by the light of their lamp have dug the earth with the self-same hands they are now putting into the dish, and it thus suggests manual labor and - a meal honestly earned. I wanted to convey a picture of a way of life quite different from ours, from that of civilized people. So the last thing I would want is for people to admire or approve of it without knowing why.

Letter 404
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Reason and duty

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 30 April 1883

Well, the time has not yet come when reason, not only in the sense of raison, but also of la conscience, is respected by everyone; to contribute towards bringing about that time is a duty, and in judging characters one of the first things that humanity demands is to take into consideration the circumstances of contemporary society.

How beautiful Zola is - it is especially L'Assommoir which I often think of. Apropos, how far did you get in reading Balzac? I have quite finished Les Miserables. I know very well that Victor Hugo analyzes in a different way than do Balzac and Zola, but he probes to the bottom of things just as well.

Letter 281
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The foundation of everything

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 11 April 1883

One would almost conclude that some people have cauterized certain sensitive nerves within themselves - especially those which, combined, are called conscience. Well, I pity them - in my opinion they travel through life without a compass. One might suppose that the love for humanity which is the foundation of everything should be in every human being. But some pretend that there are better foundations. I'm not very curious to know them; since the old one has proved to be the right one for so many ages, it is sufficient for me.

Letter 279
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A harbor of refuge

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 2 April 1883

My ideal is to work with more and more models, quite a herd of poor peoples to whom the studio would be a kind of harbor of refuge on winter days, or when they are out of work or in great need. Where they would know that there was fire, food and drink for them, and a little money to be earned. At present this is so only on a very small scale, but I hope it will grow. Right now I confine myself to a few models, and stick to them - I cannot spare one of them, but would have use for some more.

Letter 278
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The most serious, the most beautiful

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 21-28 March 1883

How beautiful those old almshouses are, I can't find words to describe them. And though Israels does this sort of thing to perfection, so to speak, I find it strange that so relatively few should have an eye for it. Every day here in The Hague, so to speak, I see a world which very many people pass by and which is very different from what most make of it. And I shouldn't dare to say so if I didn't know from experience that figure painters, too, actually pass it by, and if I didn't remember that whenever I was struck by some figure or other I encountered while out walking with them, I would hear time and again, "oh, those dirty people," or "that kind of person" - expressions, in short, one would not expect from a painter.

Yes, that often used to make me think. . . . It is as if they deliberately shun the most serious, the most beautiful things, in short voluntarily muzzle themselves and clip their own wings. And while I am gradually acquiring greater respect for some, I cannot help thinking that others will be reduced to sterility if they go on like that.

Letter 276
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A great love

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 5 March 1883

Do you have the portrait of Carlyle - that beautiful one in the Graphic? At the moment I am reading his Sartor Resartus - "the philosophy of old clothes." Among the "old clothes" he includes all kinds of forms and in the matter of religion all dogmas; it is beautiful - and faithful to reality - and humane. There has been a lot of grumbling about this book, as about his other books. Many consider Carlyle a monster - a joke about his "philosophy of old clothes" runs like this: Carlyle not only strips mankind to the skin, he even flays it. Something like that. Well, this is not true, but it most certainly is true that he is honest enough not to call the shirt the skin - and very far from seeing a tendency to belittle man in his works, I find, on the contrary, that he raises man to a high position in the universe. And much more than bitter criticism I find in him a love of humanity besides - a great love. He - Carlyle - has learned much from Goethe - but still more, I believe, from a certain man who did not write books, but whose words, though he did not write them down himself, have endured - namely Jesus . . . who, long before Carlyle, included many forms of all kinds of things among the "old clothes" too.

Letter R30
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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More in the thorns

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 5 March 1883

There is no picture of De Bock's that I don't look at with a certain pleasure - there is always something fresh and genial about it. But there is a certain kind of art - perhaps less flowery, more thorny - of which I find more in my own heart.

I know, Ruysdael himself has had his metamorphoses, and perhaps his most beautiful works are not the waterfalls and the grand forest views but L'estacade aux eaux rousses and Le Buisson in the Louvre, The Mill at Wijk bij Duurstede in the Van der Hoop Collection, the Bleacheries at Overveen in the Mauritshuis and other more commonplace things which he turned to in later years, probably under the influence of Rembrandt and Vermeer of Delft. I wish something similar would happen to De Bock, but will this be the case? I should be sorry for him if he did not land more in the thorns than in the flowerets - that's all.

Letter R30
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The painter of humanity

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, c. 5 March 1883

I cannot help having my doubts about De Bock every now and then. My impression of him last year was really not very favorable - he was continually talking about Millet - very good! - and about the greatness and breadth of Millet - I talked with him about it once, for instance, in the country, in the Scheveningse Groves. I said then, "But, De Bock, if Millet were here at this moment, then would he look at those clouds and that grass and those twenty-seven tree trunks and forget that little fellow over there in his bombazine clothes, who is sitting there on the stump of a tree eating his poor-man's lunch, his spade lying at his side? Or do you think that little part of the scene, where the little fellow is sitting, would be the exact spot on which he would concentrate his attention? I don't believe I am less fond of Millet than you are," I said; "it pleases me enormously that you have a certain admiration for Millet - but, pardon me, I don't think Millet would look at the things you point out to me all the time. Millet is primarily, and more than any other, the painter of humanity. He has unquestionably painted landscapes, and they are beautiful - nothing is surer than that - but I find it hard to understand how you can really mean it when you say that you see in Millet principally those things you now point out to me."

Letter R30
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I feel at home with them

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 4 March 1883

Some time ago I read the following words in Eliot's Felix Holt the Radical:

The people I live among have the same follies and vices as the rich, only they have their own forms of folly and vice - and they have not what are called the refinements of the rich to make their faults more bearable.

It doesn't much matter to me - I am not fond of those refinements, but some people are, and find it difficult to feel at home with such persons as have them not.

I shouldn't have thought of it in these terms, but I have felt the same sometimes. As a painter I not only feel perfectly at home and contented with them, but I find in them a quality that sometimes reminds me of gypsies, at least of something as picturesque.

Letter 272
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The daily life of the people

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 4 March 1883

Who knows, if now, with the better light, and the crayon, and the lithographic crayon, I shan't succeed in making something for illustrated papers. Current events - that was what they asked for - if they mean such things as, for instance, illuminations for the king's birthday, I should care very little for it - but if their lordships the managers would consent to rank scenes from the daily life of the people under current events, I should gladly try my best to make them.

When I have some more of that crayon, I shall make a few more figures of almshouse men.

And from those soup kitchens, you will get some quite different compositions.

Letter 272
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Yield to what is directly before one

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, c. 18-23 February 1884

The poet Francois Coppee is one of the true artists - “who put their skin in it” - which is evident from more than one poignant confession. Artist the more because he finds his inspiration in so many very diverse things, and can paint a third-class waiting room full of emigrants who are spending the night there - everything gray and gloomy and melancholy - and in another mood he can draw a little marquise dancing a minuet, as elegant as a little figure by Watteau.

That losing oneself in the present - that being quite carried away and inspired by the surroundings in which one chances to be - how can one help it? And even if one should resist it at will, of what use would it be, why shouldn't one yield to what is directly before one, this being apres tout, the surest way to create something.

Letter 357
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Something cold, systematic and methodical

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 20-24 February 1883

How miserably these modern houses are constructed nowadays, compared to what they might be if they tried to make them a little more cozy. Compare a window of the present with one of Rembrandt's time. At that time everyone seemed to feel the need for a special kind of tempered light which doesn't seem to exist any more - a least they seem to aim at making it cold, harsh and unfeeling.

The workmen's houses were all right in the beginning, but I don't see that they've progressed any in the last twenty or thirty years. Quite the opposite, the attractiveness is disappearing more and more, and is being replaced by something cold, systematic and methodical, which is becoming more and more unsatisfactory.

Letter 268
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Reality and art are alike to me

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 11 February 1883

At times I regret that the woman with whom I live understands neither books nor art. But (though she definitely can't) doesn't my still being so attached to her prove that there is something sincere between us? Perhaps she will learn later on, and it may strengthen the bond between us; but now, with the children, you will understand that she has her hands full already. And especially because of the children she comes into contact with reality, and involuntarily she learns. Books and reality and art are alike to me. Somebody out of touch with real life would bore me, but somebody right in the midst of it knows and feels naturally.

If I did not look for art in reality, I should probably find her stupid; as it is I only wish it were otherwise, but after all I am contented with things as they are.

Letter 266
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Something makes one surrender completely

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 11 February 1883

I often think of what you wrote me recently. I think there must be a great difference between the woman you met and the one I have already lived with for a full year, but what they have in common is their misfortune and their sex.

Don't you also think that if one meets someone in such a way - I mean, so weak and defenseless - something makes one surrender completely, so that one cannot imagine ever being able to desert such a person? Generally speaking, such an encounter is an apparition.

Letter 266
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Every man weighs the scale

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 11 February 1883

Meanwhile, one gets used to things as they are, but it is not normal, and if it were possible to go back suddenly to the period of thirty, forty or fifty years ago, I think one would feel more at home in that period than in the present one - that is to say, you and I, for instance, would feel more at home in it. . . .

At their best the Dutch people are Rembrandt's "Syndics," but if the salt loses its savor, a time of stagnation follows - not immediately, but history proves that it may.

It is sometimes hard for me to believe that a period of, for instance, only fifty years is sufficient to bring about such a total change that everything is the other way around. But just by reflecting on history one learns to see those relatively quick and continual changes; from it I conclude that every man weighs the scale somewhat, no matter how little, and that how one thinks and acts does make a difference. The battle is but short, and sincerity is worth while. If many are sincere and firm, the whole period becomes good - at least, energetic.

Letter 266
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The poor people and the painters

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 8 February 1883

We had a few real spring days, for instance last Monday, which I enjoyed very much.

The cycle of the seasons is a thing which is strongly felt by the people. For instance, in a neighborhood like the Geest and in those courts of almshouses or "homes of charity," the winter is always a difficult, anxious and oppressive time, and spring is a deliverance. If one pays attention, one sees that such a first spring day is a kind of Gospel message.

And it is pathetic to see so many gray, withered faces come out of doors on such a day, not to do something special, but as if to convince themselves that spring is there. So, for instance, all kinds of people, of whom one would not expect it, throng the market around the spot where a man sells crocuses, snowdrops, bluebells and other bulbs. . . . I think the poor people and the painters have in common that feeling for the weather and the cycle of the seasons.

Letter 265
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One learns much from them

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c.25-29 January 1883

There is something very pleasant in the intercourse with the models, one learns much from them. This winter I have had some people whom I shall not easily forget. It is a charming saying of Edouard Frere's that he kept the same models so long that "those who used to pose for the babies, are now posing for the mothers."

Letter 262
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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What's the use of a beautiful body?

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Amsterdam, 9 January 1878

Uncle Cor asked me today if I didn't like "Phryne" by Gerome. I told him that I would rather see a homely woman by Israels or Millet, or an old woman by Edouard Frere: for what's the use of a beautiful body such as Phryne's? Animals have it too, perhaps even more than men; but the soul, as it lives in the people painted by Israels or Millet or Frere, that is what animals never have. Is not life given us to become richer in spirit, even though the outward appearance may suffer? I feel very little sympathy for the figure by Gerome. I can find no sign of spirituality in it, and a pair of hands which show they have worked are more beautiful than those of this figure. The difference is greater still between such a beautiful girl and a man like Parker or Thomas a Kempis or those Meissonier painted; one can no more love and have sympathy for two such disparate things than one can serve two masters.

Uncle Cor then asked me if I should feel no attraction for a beautiful woman or girl. I answered that I would feel more attraction for, and would rather come into contact with, one who was ugly or old or poor or in some way unhappy, but who, through experience and sorrow, had gained a mind and a soul.

Letter 117
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A phrase that haunts me

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Paris, January 1876

There is a phrase that haunts me these days - it is today's text, "His children will seek to please the poor." . . .

For several days we have had a mouse in our "cabin", which is what we call our room. Every night, we put bread on the floor for it, and it knows already where to find it.

Letter 52
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Exactly as it was in reality

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 24 January 1884

You will easily understand that I love the scenery here. When you come, I shall take you into the cottages of the weavers. The figures of the weavers, and the women who wind the yarn, will certainly strike you. . . .

I am painting a loom of old, greenish, browned oak, in which the date 1730 is cut. Near that loom, in front of a little window which looks out on a green plot, there is a baby chair, and a baby sits in it, looking for hours at the shuttle flying to and fro.

I have painted that thing exactly as it was in reality, the loom with the little weaver, the little window and the baby chair in the miserable little room with the loam floor.

Letter 355
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Some way for me to earn something

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 18-19 January 1884

We asked the doctor again to tell us plainly what it was, and it is a fact that Mother’s thighbone is broken right beneath the joint.

You know that I was just going to pay off some debts with the money you sent. But as there will be many extra expenses, of course I told Father he was welcome to use it; the other things can wait, and it was only by chance that I had not yet sent it off. I am afraid it will be a long time before Mother recovers. . . .

Theo, think it over well, if you cannot find some way or other for me to earn something. Money will be needed, and we must also consider once more the chances of selling my work. If it were only possible for me to pay my working expenses myself, so that you could give Mother what you would otherwise give me.

I told you already that I am doing watercolors of the weavers here. I shall try to finish some.

Letter 353
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Do not deprive her for my sake

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c.13 January 1883

Since I received your letter, what you wrote has literally filled all my thoughts. And I write once more because I am so full of it. In cases like this one is involved with a patient who is ill in body and in soul, so it is doubly serious; and financial help for the necessities of life is not enough to bring about complete recovery - the best and most efficacious remedy is love and a home. . . . To save a life is a great and beautiful thing, but it is also very difficult and requires great care.

To make a home for the homeless, yes, it must be a good thing, whatever the world may say, it cannot be wrong, and yet it is often considered a crime.

. . . As to what I wrote you about sending me a little more money - yes, I am rather hard up and wish it were possible, but do not deprive her for my sake, and know well that because of what you wrote, I will try twice as hard to make progress, so that the burden may become somewhat lighter for you. But the difficulty is that hard work costs more money because of the greater outlay.

Letter 260
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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More soul, more love, more heart

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 11 December 1882

Do you know what I think of the copy I'm sending you? It is just like Obach's kind of talk, for instance, the manager of Goupil and Co. in London. And it has success, yes, that has success, yes, that is listened to and that is admired. . . . I respect all kinds of work, I don’t despise Obach, but there are things which I rank infinitely higher than that kind of energy.

I want something more concise, more simple, more serious; I want more soul and more love and more heart.

But you may be sure that I will not and cannot cry out against it, that I will not rebel against it. But it makes me sad, it takes away my pleasure, it upsets me, and personally I am absolutely at a loss about what to do.

Letter 252
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Things are going wrong

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 11 December 1882

The public, yes, one part of it is dissatisfied, but material grandeur also finds applause; however, do not forget that this is merely a straw-fire, and that those who applaud generally do so only because it has become the fashion. But on the day after the banquet, there will be a void - a silence and indifference after all that noise. . . .

Look here, Theo boy, it cuts me to the heart, things are going wrong. You know I would have counted it the highest honor - an ideal, in fact - to contribute to what the Graphic started. The sublime beginning of the Graphic was something like what Dickens was as an author, what the Household Edition of his work was as a publication.

And now everything is gone - once again materialism instead of moral principle.

Letter 252
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A painter paints to do some good

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 11 December 1882

But as to me - que faire?

A few years ago Rappard and I walked outside Brussels on a spot which they call la Valle Josaphat . . . . At that time there was a sand quarry where diggers were at work, there were women looking for dandelion leaves, a farmer was sowing; we looked at all that, and I was almost in despair then: "Shall I ever succeed in painting what I admire so much?" Now I no longer despair, now I can capture those farmers and women better; and working on with patience, I can now succeed to a certain extent. But I am sorely oppressed by the way things are going and can no longer think of those magazines with pleasure and enthusiasm. The Graphic neglects to say that many in the group of artists refuse to give their work, and withdraw more and more. Why? because a painter paints to do some good and has some sincerity in his heart which despises all that grandeur. What more shall I say?… I can only repeat, "Que faire!"

Of course, I continue to work, but conscious of a dark future.

Letter 252
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I try to work for the truth

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3-5 December 1882

I have said to myself that my first duty is to try my very best on the drawings. So that I have now made a few new ones since my last letter on the subject. . . .

Now in these drawings I have tried to show my meaning even more clearly than in the old man with his head in his hands. These fellows are all in action, and this fact especially must be kept in mind in the choice of subjects, I think. You know yourself how beautiful the numerous figures in repose, which are done so very, very often, are. They are done more often than figures in action.

It is always very tempting to draw a figure at rest; it is very difficult to express action, and in many people's eyes the former effect is more "pleasant" than anything else. But this "pleasant" aspect must not detract from the truth, and the truth is that there is more drudgery than rest in life. So you see my main idea about all this is - that for my part I try to work for the truth.

It seems to me that the drawings themselves are even more urgent than their reproduction.

Letter 251
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Prints for the people

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 1 December 1882

It has always been said that in Holland we cannot make prints for the people - I have never been able to believe it, I see now that it can be done

I see that with persistence and perseverance it might become something not at all unnecessary, but definitely good and useful.

The Society for General Welfare has bolstered up Elsevier in Rotterdam with thousands of guilders for the publication of The Swallow. Did The Swallow become a good thing? No, though it had a few beautiful sheets, it was too uninteresting, not serious, not powerful, not strong enough . . . .

So, instead of saying, . . . "It might be done, and if so, we should do it," Elsevier and thousands like him say it can't be done, or they do it sloppily and without enough energy. . . . I know their magazine well enough to take it upon myself to say, "You have not made it what it might have been, it should and might have been better."

So what is needed is courage and self-sacrifice and risking something, not for gain, but because it is useful and good; one must retain one's trust in one's fellow creatures and fellow countrymen in general.

Letter 249
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The existence of "something on high"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 27 November 1882

Now I have witnessed everything, the transfer on to the stone, the preparation of the stone and the printing itself. . . . After a time I hope to do better, this doesn't satisfy me at all, but well, the progress must come by work and trying. It seems to me the duty of a painter to try to put an idea into his work. In this print I have tried to express (but I cannot do it well, or so strikingly as it is in reality, of which this is but a weak reflection in a dark mirror) what seems to me one of the strongest proofs of the existence of "something on high" in which Millet believed, namely, the existence of God and eternity - certainly in the infinitely touching expression of such a little old man, of which he himself is perhaps unconscious, when he is sitting quietly in his corner by the fire.

Letter 248
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"We don't need that any more"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 24 November 1882

It is easier to say, as Mesdag did of a certain picture by Heyerdahl, painted with the same sentiment as that of Murillo or Rembrandt, which he didn't want to buy from you, "Oh, that's the old style - we don't need that any more," than it is to replace that old style by something as good, let alone something superior.

And as many people these days argue the same way as Mesdag, without thinking much about it, it can do no harm if others reflect whether we are in this world to tear down instead of build up. The expression "We don't need that any more" - how readily it is used, and what a stupid and ugly phrase it is. In one of his fairy tales Andersen puts it, I think, not in a human being's mouth, but in an old pig's.

Letter 247
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Something of the Brabant fields

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 24 November 1882

How well constructed Zola's "Pot-Bouille" is, and how bitter the words it closes with: "Nowadays all firms are worth the same, the one is equal to the other, everywhere it is Swine and Co." Don't you think Octave Mouret, really the principal figure, can be considered typical of those persons whom you recently wrote about, if you remember? . . .

He is satisfied when he can readily sell his bales of "nouveautes" unloading his bales of goods on the sidewalks of Paris; he doesn't seem to have any other aspiration except the conquest of women, and yet he does not really love them, for Zola perceives correctly, I think, when he says, "where his contempt for women broke through." . . .

Could he have done otherwise? - perhaps not, but you and I can and must act differently, I think. For we have our roots in a different kind of family life than Mouret, and besides, I hope there will always remain in us something of the Brabant fields and heath, which years of city life will not be able to wipe out, especially as it is renewed and strengthened by art.

Letter 247
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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How beautiful an old workman is

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 24 November 1882

Today and yesterday I drew two figures of an old man sitting with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Long ago Schuitemaker sat for me, and I kept the drawing because I wanted to make a better one someday. Perhaps I will also make a lithograph of it. How beautiful such an old workman is, with his patched fustian clothes and his bald head.

Letter 247
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"For you, the public"

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from The Hague, 16 November 1882

I cannot agree with what you say about the way the public looks at things, namely being struck by faulty drawing before seeing the character. I do believe, however, that a relatively small part of the public looks at pictures in exactly the way you describe, but not the big crowd to whom Herkomer says, "For you, the public, it is really done" - at least that's what I think.

Letter R19
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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No result could please me more

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 16 November 1882

I do not know whether you will think me conceited when I tell you that the following pleased me very much. Smulder's workmen at the other store on the Laan saw the stone of the old man from the almshouse, and asked the printer if they could have a copy to hang on the wall. No result of my work could please me more than when ordinary working people hang such prints in their room or workshop.

I think what Herkomer said, It is really done for you - the public, is true. Of course a drawing must have artistic value, but in my opinion this doesn't prevent the man in the street from finding something in it.

Letter 245
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A need for something infinite

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 5 November 1882

How much good walking out to the desolate seashore and gazing out at the grey-green sea with the long white crests on its waves can do for a man who is downcast and dejected! But if one should have a need for something great, something infinite, something one can perceive God in, there is no need to go far in quest; it seems to me that I have seen something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression in a small child's eyes when it awakens early in the morning and yells or laughs on finding the dear sun shining upon its cradle. If ever a "beam shines down from above," that may be where it is to be found.

Letter 242
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I see expression and soul

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 5 November 1882

Today I have been working on old drawings from Etten, because in the fields I saw the pollard willows in the same leafless condition again, and it reminded me of what I saw last year. Sometimes I have such a longing to do landscape, just as I crave a long walk to refresh myself; and in all nature, for instance in trees, I see expression and soul, so to speak. A row of pollard willows sometimes resembles a procession of almshouse men. Young corn has something inexpressibly pure and tender about it, which awakens the same emotion as the expression of a sleeping baby, for instance. The trodden grass at the roadside looks tired and dusty like the people of the slums. A few days ago, when it had been snowing, I saw a group of Savoy cabbages standing frozen and benumbed, and it reminded me of a group of women in their thin petticoats and old shawls which I had seen standing in a little hot water-and-coal shop early in the morning.

Letter 242
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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It's not that I disapprove of everything in the present

I often disliked many things in England, but that Black and White and Dickens are things which make up for it all. I speak from my own experience. It's not that I disapprove of everything in the present, far from it, but still it seems to me that something of the fine spirit of that time which ought to have been preserved is disappearing - in art especially. But also in life itself. Perhaps I express myself too vaguely, but I cannot say it differently - I don't know exactly what it is, but it is not just the Black and White which changed its course and deviated from its healthy, noble beginning. Rather, there is in general a kind of skepticism and indifference and coolness, notwithstanding all the activity. But all this is too vague, too indefinite. I do not think too much about it, because I think of my drawings and have no time to spare.

To Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 25-29 January 1883, Letter 262
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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He saw the sublime in the most ordinary, commonplace things

To you and me there appeared on the cold cruel pavement a sad pitiful woman's figure, and neither you nor I passed it by - we both stopped and followed the human impulse of our hearts.

Such an encounter has the quality of an apparition about it, at least when one recalls it; one sees a pale face, a sorrowful look like an Ecce Homo on a dark background - all the rest disappears. That is the sentiment of an Ecce Homo, and there is the same expression in reality, but in this case it is on a woman's face. Later it certainly becomes different - but one never forgets that first expression....

Underneath a figure of an English woman (by Paterson) is written the name Dolorosa; that expresses it well.

I was thinking of the two women now, and at the same time I thought of a drawing by Pinwell, “The Sisters,” in which I find that Dolorosa expression. - That drawing represents two women in black, in a dark room; one has just come home and is hanging her coat on the rack. The other is smelling a primrose on the table while picking up some white sewing.

That Pinwell reminds one a little of Feyen-Perrin - in his early work; it also reminds one of Thijs Maris, but with an even purer sentiment.

He was such a poet that he saw the sublime in the most ordinary, commonplace things. His work is rare - I saw very little of it, but that little was so beautiful that now, at least ten years later, I see it as clearly as I did the first time.

To Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 25-29 January 1883, Letter 262
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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