Please allow me to come

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, 1st half February 1886

Just think, if all goes well, and if I had good food, etc., all that time, which certainly will leave something to be desired, even in that case it will take about six months before I shall have recovered entirely.

Now, at this moment, I am feeling terribly weak, even worse than that, from reaction after overwork, but that is the natural course of things and nothing extraordinary; but as it is a question of taking better nourishment, etc., you see in Brabant I shall again spend my last penny on models; it will be the same story all over again, and I do not think that will be right. In that way we stray from our path. So please allow me to come sooner, I should almost say at once.

Letter 452
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Not to be discouraged

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

More and more I believe that l'art pour l'art, to work for work's sake, l'energie pour l'energie - is after all the principle of all great artists, for in the case of the de Goncourts one sees how necessary obstinacy is, for society will not thank them for it.

But in painting one finds a certain rest in the histories of those painters who aimed at the most sublime through it all.

Israels himself, for instance, was still quite unknown and poor, even to the extent of having nothing to eat but dry bread - when he nevertheless wanted to go to Paris, though the circumstances were discouraging enough.

Not to be discouraged, even though one is almost starving, and though one feels one has to say farewell to all material comfort in life!

Letter 448
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Almost a handsome promise

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

Just after the receipt of your letter it happened that Sibert came to look at the drawings (mine was a head of Niobe and a hand that might be done by Michelangelo). I had drawn that hand within a few hours, and that was the drawing he liked best. Now l told him that l intended to go to Cormon, and he said: “You may do as you like, but I tell you that Verlat has trained several strong ones, and we attach great value to training pupils who are a credit to us - and I advise you most strongly to stay.”

This is almost a handsome promise, as if they guarantee success, and what shall I do?

Letter 448
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"You take drawing seriously"

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

I am also drawing in the daytime now, and the teacher there, who makes portraits at present and gets well paid for them, has asked me repeatedly if I had never drawn from plaster casts before and if I had taught myself to draw, and he concluded: "I see that you have worked a lot, and, it will not take you long to make progress, you will gain much by it - it will take a year, but what does that matter?"

Now there is one fellow of my age sitting next to me to whom he does not say that.

Now Sibert, that is the name of the teacher who also directs the class for drawing from the nude, said, "As for you, you will draw as you please, for I see that you take drawing seriously."

Then he also said that Verlat had told him there was some good in my work which Verlat did not say to me.

Letter 448
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The work depends on it

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Antwerp, c. 22 January 1886

Next Monday we shall get new models; in fact, then I shall begin in earnest, and for Monday I ought to have had a large canvas; they also told me that I must definitely have other brushes, etc.

But I haven't any money left, so it is really pressing, and I wish you would do what you can, for I am also doing what I can, and almost all the time it is such that hardly anything is left for food.

It would be a relief to me if I could have your letter before Monday. What I wrote you about the clothes I want is also rather urgent. I have already made a few acquaintances who have seen the things I had brought for the admission.

I do not think I can take a shorter cut to make progress, and whether I go to the country afterward or to a studio in Paris, at all events it is a good thing to see many others paint, and specially to work regularly from the model as much as ever is possible.

Goodbye, I write you in a hurry because I must get to work. But try your best not to keep me waiting, for the work depends on it, and I assure you in any case it will be hard enough for me.

Letter 446
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Freedom of action

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

I begin to object more and more to your pretending to be a financier, and thinking me exactly the opposite. All people are not alike, and if one does not understand that in drawing up accounts some time must have passed over the account before one can be sure to have counted right, if one does not understand this, one is no calculator. And a broader insight into finances is exactly what characterizes many modern financiers. Namely not pinching, but allowing freedom of action.

I know, Theo, that you may also be rather hard up. But your life has never been so hard as mine has these last ten or twelve years. Can't you make allowances for me when I say, Perhaps it has been long enough now? Meanwhile I have learned something that I did not know before, that has renewed all my chances, and I protest against my always being neglected. And if I should like to live again in the city for some time, and afterward perhaps to work in a studio in Paris too, would you try to prevent this?

Be honest enough to let me go my own way, for I tell you that I do not want to quarrel, and I will not quarrel, but I will not be hampered in my career. And what can I do in the country, unless I go there with money for models and colors? There is no chance, absolutely none, of making money with my work in the country, and there is such a chance in the city. So I am not safe before I have made friends in the city - and that comes first. For the moment this may complicate things somewhat, but after all it is the only way, and going back to the country now would end in stagnation.

Letter 444
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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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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I know no other way

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, c 24 January 1885

All the time I am working at various heads and hands.

I have also drawn some again, perhaps you would find something in them, perhaps not, I can't help it. I repeat, I know no other way.

But I can't understand that you say: perhaps later on we shall admire even the things done now.

If I were you, I should have so much self-confidence and independent opinion that I should know whether I could see now what there was or was not in a thing.

Well, you must know those things for yourself.

Letter 393
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Get a faith

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, c 24 January 1885

What Michelangelo said in a splendid metaphor, I think Millet has said without metaphor, and Millet can perhaps best teach us to see, and get "a faith." If I do better work later on, I certainly shall not work differently than now, I mean it will be the same apple, though riper; I shall not change my mind about what I have thought from the beginning. And that is the reason why I say for my part: if I am no good now, I shall be no good later on either, but if later on, then now too. For corn is corn, though people from the city may take it for grass at first, and also the other way round.

In any case, whether people approve or do not approve of what I do and how I do it, I for my part know no other way than to wrestle so long with nature that she tells me her secret.

All the time I am working . . .

Letter 393
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I am still full of remorse

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

If I could one day prove that I have not impoverished the family, that would comfort me. For now I am still full of remorse at spending money with no return. But as you say, patience and work are the only chance of getting away from that.

However, I often think that if I had done as you did, if I had stayed with Goupils', if I had confined myself to selling pictures, I should have done better. For in business, even if you yourself do not produce, you make others produce. Just now so many artists need support from the dealers, and only rarely do they find it.

Letter 617
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Misfortune and disease

Vincent van Gogh to To Wilhelmina van Gogh, from Saint-Remy, 10 December 1889

While I was writing this letter I got up to order to put a few brush strokes on a canvas I'm working on - well, I don't know what thoughts came into my head while I was writing, but when I looked at my canvas I told myself it was not right. Then I took a color that was there on the palette, a dull dirty white, which you get by mixing white, green and a little carmine. I daubed this greenish tone all over the sky, and behold, at a distance it softens the tones, whereas one would think that one would spoil and besmirch the painting. Don't misfortune and disease do the same thing to us and to our health; and if fate ordains that we be unfortunate or sick, are we not in that case worth more than if we were serene and healthy according to our own vague ideas and desires with regard to possible happiness? I don't know…

When I compare them with others, some of my pictures certainly show traces of having been painted by a sick man, and I assure you that I don't do this on purpose. It's against my conscious will that all my calculations end in broken tones.

Letter W16
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Sometimes I think they are very ugly

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Saint-Remy, 7 December 1889

Among the studies you will find the following which are for Mother and our sister: "Olives", "Bedroom", "Reaper", "Ploughing", "Wheat Field with Cypresses", "Orchard in Blossom", "Portrait". The rest are mostly studies of autumn, and I think that the best is the yellow mulberry tree against a bright blue sky - then the study of the house and the park, of which there are two variations. They are giving me a lot of trouble, and sometimes I think they are very ugly, sometimes they seem good to me; perhaps you will have the same impression when you see them.

I hope you are well. For myself I have nothing to complain of, I am feeling absolutely normal, so to speak, but without an idea for the future, and really I do not know what is going to happen, and perhaps I rather avoid facing this question, feeling that I can do nothing about it.

Letter 618
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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A certain obstinacy

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 7 December 1884

I let people say and think what they like of me, more than you perhaps suppose, but be sure of this, when a thing turns out wrong, that's no reason for me to admit that I ought not to have begun it; on the contrary, if it fails many a time, it is a reason for me to try again if the very same thing is not possible yet, and always in the same direction, as my views are well considered and calculated, and in my opinion have their raison d'etre.

I cannot bother about what people think of me, what I have to think of is getting on.

So I go my own way with a certain obstinacy, believing in some things and not believing in others.

Letter 388
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Let's go on quietly

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 15-20 November 1885

The other day I had a letter from Leurs about my pictures. He wrote that Tersteeg and Wisselingh had seen them, but did not care for them.

All the same I maintain that I shall bring people to have other ideas, although Tersteeg and Wisselingh may be indifferent. I have just read a few books in the style of the Souvenirs of Gigoux, which my friend in Eindhoven had ordered, and in which I found very interesting things about the men of that period, beginning with Paul Huet. And which encourage me to think that I have not attacked nature in the wrong way, nor the technique of painting, though I readily admit that I shall and must change a lot more. As to the heads which I sent you, there must be some good ones among them. I am almost sure of it. So let's go on quietly.

Letter 434
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Many who undertake to change

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 8-12 November 1885

Now as to that acquaintance of mine and his opinion of pictures; when someone with a clear intelligent head paints still life and works out-of-doors every day, if only for a year, he need not therefore be an art critic, neither does he feel he is a painter yet, but for all that he will observe more originally than many others.

Besides, his character is not just like everybody's, for instance, he was originally intended to become a priest, at a certain moment he flatly refused this, and carried his point, in which not exactly every one in Brabant succeeds. And there is something broad-minded and loyal about him.

Zola once referred to this something in a conversation between Mouret and his school-fellow, when he let Mouret get serious and say that it had cost him a great deal to free himself from that time and its influence, but that he had wanted to live and that he had lived. Many who undertake to change fall back, don't come any further than a certain insipid methodism because they don't take their measures energetically enough.

Letter 431
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I could not sell it

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, 8-12 November 1885

You know those three pollard oaks at the bottom of the garden at home; I have plodded on them for the fourth time.

The difficulty was the tufts of havana leaves, to model them and give them form, color, tone. Then in the evening I took it to that acquaintance of mine in Eindhoven, who has a rather stylish drawing room, where we put it on the wall. Well, never before was I so convinced that I shall make things that do well, that I shall succeed in calculating my colors, so that I have it in my power to make the right effect.

Now, though that man has money, though he took a fancy to it, I felt such a glow of courage when I saw that it was good that, as it hung there, it created an atmosphere by the soft melancholy harmony of that combination of colors that I could not sell it.

But as he had a fancy for it, I gave it to him, and he accepted it just as I had intended, without many words, namely little more than, "The thing is damned good."

I don't think so yet myself.

Letter 431
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One has to seek for light a long time

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early November 1885

I am completely absorbed in the laws of colors. If only they had taught us them in our youth!

But it is the fate of most people that by a kind of fatality one has to seek for light a long time. For, that the laws of color which Delacroix was the first to use, like Newton did for gravitation, and like Stephenson did for steam - that those laws of colors are a ray of light - is absolutely certain.

Letter 430
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A fata morgana

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, late November 1884

What shall I say to you? Your letter sounds very correct, and has the tone of a good ministre des Beaux Arts.

But this does not alter the fact that it is not much use to me, and that I am not satisfied with it - and especially in your "later on, when you have expressed yourself more clearly, we shall perhaps find something in your present work, and then we shall not act as we do now…" I see only a fair promise - but in reality a ministerial fata morgana in the eyes of a fellow like me, who would rather find an outlet for his work in a more pedestrian way, provided that it is at the present moment.

You cannot demand of me that I resign myself to a ministerial fata morgana. After all, I am too practical for that! Which is not being intransigent, and which is really why I piss on the sanctuary of the intransigent fellows - which I do once in a while - on sanctuaries in general.

Letter 386b
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One must not be afraid

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

Oh, Theo, why should I change - I used to be very passive and very gentle and quiet - I'm that no longer, but then I'm no longer a child either now - sometimes I feel my own man.

Take Mauve, why is he quick-tempered and difficult to get on with at times? I haven't come as far as he has, but I, too shall go further than I am now.

I tell you, if one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm - but that's a lie, and you yourself used to call it that. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.

Letter 378
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The Last Word

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 29 October 1883

One is not sure of things all at once, one cannot foresee things except very vaguely, but there is something called conscience after all, a kind of compass by which one can distinguish between this direction and that - between North and South - between right and left - at least broadly speaking. Which means - notwithstanding fortuitous currents and certain deceptively inviting coasts - being able to say, This is not the right course for me after all. And look, earning money in Paris, even for others' sakes, would, seem to me such a deceptive fata morgana: a coast that recedes more and more when you approach to make a landing there, at the same time causing you to be driven farther and farther off your course.

I see everything except fatality against painting; for Paris I see everything except fatality!

Fatality, in which with an unutterable feeling I see God, Who is the White Ray of Light, and Who has the last word; what is not good through and through is not good at all, and will not last - He, in Whose eyes even the Black Ray will have no plausible meaning.

Letter 337
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Fix the heart on high

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 29 October 1883

In short, Theo, I have a vague but firm feeling that it is our first duty to fix the heart on high, and this feeling forces me to recommend to you, brother to brother, friend to friend, preparing yourself for a life based on simpler principles. Principles which I am unable to define for others, but which I feel; one can hardly imagine duty commanding one to do business in Paris; rather, it will induce one to retire from it.

Can you share these feelings to a certain extent? Think it over, deliberate on it; if you want time, search your heart, and take your time. All hesitation based on the objection "I am not an artist" seems reasonable to me only as long as you do not prevent yourself from becoming one. To what degree we are or are not artists, neither we ourselves nor others can definitely ascertain. However, the How-to-do-it system entails saying, I shall do my best to do it, without asking any such questions; on the other hand, it seems to me that it is the How-NOT-to-do-it system which says, "I know in advance I shall not be able to do it."

Letter 337
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A hard life with a purpose

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 29 October 1883

I see that Paris will put you into what I would call a crooked position in regard to your own duty. Leaving your being useful to others out of it for the moment, seeing that I do not know if in the long run I myself should remain truly firm, because you are directing the simpler minds of others toward Paris, a thought which will disturb exactly these people because they might be intoxicated by it.

Understand clearly what I say: Until now everything has had its reason, but now the signs of the times suggest a change of direction, as I see it, in a way quite different from and far more decisive than anything in the past.

There is no question of slackening or giving in here; on the contrary, in this there is an attacking the calamity at the core: the same energetic principle as that of sowing superior plants in better soil.

The calamity leaves us our old courage and our old earnest energy. Let the world say venomously what it cannot refrain from saying; it will leave you and me cold. On the contrary, we are counting on the possibility of a hard life which will have a purpose other than earning as much money as possible.

Letter 337
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A very clear duty

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Drenthe, 29 October 1883

Leave the sinking ship, and concentrate your mind and energy, not on clinging to your present position, but on creating something wholly new. For a long time your duty has seemed too complicated to me; your duty ought to be something simple, and your present duty would grow more and more involved and doubtful, leaving the question of whether I think it is really and truly your duty out of it. By starting to paint, you will find a very clear duty and a very simple, straight path for your feet.

My idea is that going on in your present situation would prove to be not only more and more unbearable, but also less and less profitable. . . . I do not say that you and I will get rich together, but in any case we shall be able to preserve our aplomb and our balance, although - I cannot deny this - we shall have a very hard time of it during the first few years.

Letter 337
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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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.
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Ambition and fame

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Arles, 17 September 1888

Oh - the exhibition at the Revue Independante - good, but once and for all, we are too good smokers to put the wrong end of the cigar into our mouths. We shall be forced to try to sell in order to do the things we sell over again, and better. That's because we are in a bad trade, but let's try something different from the fun of the fair that's the pest of the house.

This afternoon I had a select public - four or five hooligans and a dozen street arabs, who were especially interested in seeing the paint come out of the tubes. Well, that same public - it meant fame, or rather I mean to laugh at ambition and fame, as I do at those street arabs, and at the loafers on the banks of the Rhone and in the Rue du Pont d'Arles.

Letter 539
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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An artist's house

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

I expect to go to live in the house tomorrow, but as I have bought some more things and have still more to add to them, and I am only speaking of what is strictly necessary - you must again send me 100 francs instead of 50.

I am convinced that in the end we shall do well by furnishing the studio. And I already feel freer in my work, and less harried by unnecessary annoyances than I have been.

Without changing anything in this house either now or afterward, I want all the same to make it an artist's house through the decorations. That will come.

Letter 537
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Fame

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

I have finished L'Immortel by Daudet. I rather like the saying of the sculptor Vedrine, that to achieve fame is something like ramming the lighted end of your cigar into your mouth when you are smoking.

Letter 531
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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By heart

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from Nuenen, September 1885

Then I read somewhere else, "When Delacroix paints - it's like a lion devouring a piece of meat." . . . .

Another thing about Delacroix. He had a discussion with a friend about the question of working absolutely after nature, and he said on this occasion that one must get one's studies from nature but that the ultimate picture ought to be made from memory. That friend was walking with him on the boulevard when they were having this discussion - which had already become pretty vehement. When they parted company, the other one still wasn't entirely convinced. Delacroix let him toddle on for a bit after he took his leave, and then (using his two hands as a speaking trumpet) he roared after him in a lusty voice, to the consternation of the respectable citizens passing by, "By heart! By heart!"

Letter R58
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Even at the risk of my own life

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

But tonight I am much too occupied with Lhermitte's drawings to go on writing about other things. When I think of Millet or of Lhermitte, I find modern art as great as Michelangelo and Rembrandt - ancient art is infinite, modern art infinite too - the ancient masters are geniuses - the modern ones are geniuses too. A person like Chenavard does not think so perhaps. But I, for my part, am convinced that in this respect one can have faith in modern art.

The fact that I have a definite belief about art makes me sure of what I want in my own work, and I shall try to reach it even at the risk of my own life.

Letter 423
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"The excellent always escapes them"

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

Just listen, Theo, as to that barricade, you know there was a time in my life when I also stood with the Guizots, etc.

But as soon as I had enough of it, you know how I turned away with energy and persistence.

The younger people now do not want me, however; all right, I don't care; as men, and as painters, I like the generation of about '48 better than those of '84; but from those of '48, not the Guizots, but the revolutionaries, Michelet - and also the peasant painters of Barbizon. . . .

I believe that Millet and Daumier were ignored by practically all art dealers. Once an art lover said of the way the dealers acted with Corot's studies the excellent always escapes them. And this remark is shrewd.

Letter 380
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I am almost paralyzed

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

I intended to have twelve photographs taken - a series of Brabant scenes, including the six I am making for Hermans.

I intended to send them to some illustrated papers, to try to get some work, or at least to become known. . . .

However, I will have another photo taken of the weavers in carte-de-visite size only, because being so far away from the illustrated papers here, I must find a means to get connections in another way than by words. . . .

Recently I have been working very hard; I believe, what with other emotions, I have even overworked myself. For I am in a melancholy mood, and all these things have combined to upset me in such a way that there are many days when I am almost paralyzed.

I cannot eat, and I cannot sleep - that is to say, not enough, and that makes one weak.

Letter 380
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The indifference

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from Nuenen, second half of August 1885

I know too well what my ultimate goal is, and I am too firmly convinced of being on the right road after all, to pay much attention to what people say of me - when I want to paint what I feel and feel what I paint.

Nevertheless it makes life difficult at times, and - I think it quite possible that later on some fellows will regret either the things they said of me or the opposition and indifference which they have pestered me with. The way I see it is this: I withdraw from people to such an extent that I literally don't meet anybody except - the poor peasants - with whom I am directly concerned because I paint them.

And this will remain my policy, and it is quite possible that I shall give up my studio before long and go live in a peasant's cottage, so as not to hear or see educated people - as they call themselves - any longer.

Letter R57
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Total annihilation

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from Nuenen, second half of August 1885

For the rest - you will experience it yourself - it is less a golden age than an iron age for painters - I mean, it is not exactly easy for them to keep alive - no more than that. At least as far as I am concerned it is open misery - but despite that my courage, and perhaps my powers too, are greater rather than smaller than they were before. Don't think you're the only one who considers or considered it his duty to criticize me, you know, even to the limits of total annihilation; on the contrary, it's about the only thing I have encountered so far. For the very reason that you are, or were, not the only one to speak in this way and no other, your criticism is connected with other criticism to which I on my part oppose the conviction that my endeavors have a raison d'etre, and to which I shall continue to oppose it more and more strongly.

Letter R57
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Union is strength

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, second half of August 1885

As to Rappard, I just wrote to him, I want him to retract completely what he has written. But you see, Theo, how much depends on being consistent in one's work.

I wrote Rappard that actually we have to fight other things than each other, and that at this moment those painting rural life and the life of the people must join hands because union is strength.

At any rate, one cannot do it alone; a whole group that is of the same mind can do more. You too must be of good courage, for perhaps we shall make more friends and then will become more animated, and perhaps the mutual discord will change into a peasant uprising against the kind of painters one finds on every jury nowadays, who, if they could, would even now obstruct the ideas which Millet pioneered.

Letter 415
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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If only I may keep your sympathy

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 July 1883

Yet, Theo, you need not spare me if it's only a question of money - if only as a friend and a brother you keep a little sympathy for my work, saleable or unsaleable. If only I may keep your sympathy in this respect, I care very little for all the rest, and we must calmly and deliberately find ways and means. . . .

Oh, Theo, I could make so much more progress if I could spend a little more. But I can't find the way out, I am handicapped by expenses everywhere. When I read the biographies of other painters, I find that they all needed money and were miserable when they couldn't go on.

Letter 301
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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My life is too cramped and meager

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 July 1883

I feel my ardor vanishing, one needs to have a fixed point somewhere. When you say, "Set your hopes on the future," it sounds to me as if you yourself had no confidence in me.

Is this true? I can't help it, my spirits are low because of all these cares. I only wish you were here.

You say that the effect of the lithographs is somewhat meager. I am not in the least surprised when I think of how a man's physique influences his work, and my life is too cramped and meager. Really, Theo, we ought to have had a little more to eat for the sake of the work, but I could not afford it, and it will remain so as long as I cannot breathe a little more freely.

Letter 301
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"Let us hope for better times"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 July 1883

So now my first batch of photographs for you to show to some artists coincides with your "I can give you little hope for the future." Has anything happened? . . .

It wouldn't make me so melancholy, brother, if you hadn't added something which worries me. You say, "Let us hope for better times."

You see, in my opinion that is one of those things one should beware of. To hope for better times must not be a feeling but an action in the present. My actions depend on yours in that if you should stop sending money, I couldn't go on and should just be in a desperate position.

Just because I felt the hope for better times strongly, I threw all my strength into the present work, without thinking of the future other than to trust the work would find its wages, though we must pinch ourselves as to food, drink and clothes more and more every week.

There was the question of Scheveningen, the question of painting. I thought, "All right, let's carry it through." But now I could almost wish I had not started it, boy, for the expenses are heavy and I cannot meet them.

Letter 301
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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It became too much today

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 22 July 1883

It became too much today. Work is the only remedy; if that does not help, one breaks down.

And you see the trouble is that the possibility of working depends on selling the work, for there are expenses - the more one works, the greater the expenses are (though the latter is not true in every respect). When one does not sell and has no other income, it is impossible to make the progress which would otherwise follow of its own accord.

The fact is, brother, that the general state of affairs oppressed me more than I could bear, and I am telling you my thoughts. I only wish you would come soon. And do write soon, for I need it. Of course there is nobody but you whom I can speak to about it, for it does not concern other people, and they have nothing to do with it.

Letter 302
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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What pleases the public

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

I have been reading "Mes Haines" by Zola; there are good things in it, though I think he makes great mistakes - he doesn't even mention Millet in his general survey. The following is quite true: "Note that what pleases the public is always utterly banal, just what they are accustomed to seeing every year; they have got used to such insipidities, to such pretty lies that they repudiate vigorous truths with all their might."

Letter 297
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"You are a mediocrity"

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

But there are watercolors where the outlines are very strongly expressed - for instance those by Regamey, those by Pinwell and Walker and Herkomer, which I think of very often (those by the Belgian Meunier); but even if I tried this, Tersteeg would not be satisfied with them. He would always say, "It is not saleable and saleability must come first now."

Personally I think he means in plainer terms, "You are a mediocrity and you are arrogant because you don't give in and you make mediocre little things: you are making yourself ridiculous with your so-called seeking, and you do not work." That is the real meaning of what Tersteeg said to me the year before last, and last year; and he still means it.

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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What becomes of the policeman?

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

I hope you will write me in detail about Les Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvre - it must have been a good thing to have seen such a show.

And when one thinks how at the time there were a few persons whose character, intention and genius were rather suspect in the public's opinion - persons about whom the most absurd things were told, Millet, Corot, Daubigny, etc., who were thought of the way the village policeman views a stray shaggy dog, or a tramp without a passport - and time passes, and voila "les cent chefs-d'oeuvre," and if a hundred are not enough, then innumerable ones. And what becomes of the policeman? Very little remains of them except a number of summonses as curiosities. Yet I think the history of great men is tragic - though it's true that they did not meet only village policemen in their lives - for usually they are no longer alive when their work is publicly acknowledged, and for a long time during their lives they are under a kind of depression because of the opposition and the difficulties of struggling through life. And so whenever I hear of such a public acknowledgment of the merits of such and such a one, I think the more vividly of the quiet, somewhat somber figures of those who personally had few friends, and then, in their simplicity, I find them even greater and more tragic.

Letter 297
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Work with love and intelligence

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 26 July 1882

But I repeat, everyone who works with love and intelligence finds a kind of armor against the opinion of other people in the very sincerity of his love for nature and art. Nature is also severe and, so to speak, hard; but she never deceives and always helps us on.

So I do not count my falling into disgrace with Tersteeg, or whomever, a misfortune; though I am sorry about it, that cannot be the real cause of misfortune. If I had no love for nature or my work, then I should indeed be misfortunate. The worse I get along with people, the more I learn to have faith in nature and to concentrate on her.

Letter 220
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"You’ll never amount to anything"

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 26 July 1882

What has happened to me with Tersteeg is not at all unusual; everybody meets with such things in life. One cannot tell exactly where the fault lies. But with Tersteeg it is an old trouble. I am now almost certain that long ago he said things about me which contributed not a little toward putting me in a bad light. But I need not mind that - what could harm me before cannot harm me now.

When you come to the studio, you will see for yourself that it really is absurd when he says, "Oh! Your drawing will never amount to anything." However, it is hard to contradict such a remark, for as soon as one does, one is called conceited, and they mention the greatest artists and say, "He fancies he's like them."

Letter 220
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I will concentrate on art

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

I certainly and confidently believe, brother, that to all the hints they may give you to convince you to stop sending me money, you will quietly answer that you have faith in my becoming a good painter, and so will continue to help me; that as to my private life and business, you left me free therein, and will neither force me nor help others to force me. Then I believe they will soon stop their gossip. The only thing they can do is exclude me from some circles where they consider me an outcast. Which is nothing new and doesn't bother me one way or the other. I will concentrate more and more on art. And though some people may damn me irrevocably and forever, in the nature of things my profession and my work will open new relationships to me, that much fresher for not having been frozen, hardened and made sterile by old prejudices.

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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In the very marrow of my bones

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

It was different last winter when Tersteeg said something about his seeing to it that I should get no more money from you, and I wrote you about it at once. But I shall not write about him any more unless such a thing happens again. It would be too foolish to run after him, saying, Mr. Tersteeg, Mr. Tersteeg, I am a real painter like other painters, no matter what you say.

No, since I do indeed have the artistic sense in the very marrow of my bones, I think it's much better to go quietly camping in the meadows or the dunes, or to work in the studio from the model, without paying the slightest attention to him.

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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"It will come to nothing"

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

Now when you come, brother, I shall have a few watercolors for you. It is damn nice working in the studio. Do you remember that last winter I told you you would have your watercolors within a year?

Those I have done now are simply to show you that my studying drawing, correct perspective and proportions, helps me make progress in watercolors. And for my part, I did them as an experiment to find out what progress I had made in watercolors after six months of drawing exclusively; and secondly, to see what I shall have to work harder on in that fundamental drawing which everything depends on. . . .

When judging me and my behavior, Tersteeg always starts with the fixed idea that I can do nothing and am good for nothing. I heard it from his own lips, "Oh, that painting of yours will be like all the other things you started, it will come to nothing."

Letter 219
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I can only expect a refusal

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early July 1884

As to the Society of Draftsmen, firstly, I quite forgot it because I was busy painting those figures; secondly, now that your letter reminds me of it, I am not very keen on it, for, as I told you already last summer, I can only expect a refusal of my petition for membership, which refusal one can, however, consider as a kind of necessary evil that can be redressed next year and as such the request perhaps has its raison d'etre. . . .

And when I tell you that I am just now quite absorbed again in two new large studies of interiors of weavers, you will understand I am in no mood for it. Especially as it might cause new disagreements if I applied again to the gentlemen at The Hague.

Letter 372
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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Always

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

That passage from "Germinal" I copied for you lately had struck me particularly, because at the time I had almost literally the same longing to be something like a grass mower or a navvy.

And I was sick of the boredom of civilization. It is better, one is happier if one carries it out - literally though - one feels at least that one is really alive. And it is a good thing in winter to be deep in the snow, in the autumn deep in the yellow leaves, in summer among the ripe corn, in spring amid the grass; it is a good thing to be always with the mowers and the peasant girls, in summer with a big sky overhead, in winter by the fireside, and to feel that it always has been and always will be so.

One may sleep on straw, eat black bread, well, one will only be the healthier for it.

Letter 413
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Nothing but routine

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from Nuenen, June 1885

What I said and will say again is - that all too often the word "technique" is used in a conventional sense, that all too often it is not used in good faith. People are praising the technique of all those Italians and Spaniards, and they are men who are more conventional, who have to a greater extent nothing but routine, than anybody else - and I am afraid that with such fellows as Haverman the metier so soon changes into a routine. And then what is it worth?

What I want to ask you now is, What is the real reason you have broken with me?

The reason I am writing you again is just my love for Millet, for Breton and for all those who paint peasants and the common people, and I count you among them.

Letter R52
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Little that has proved lasting

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from Nuenen, June 1885

Repeatedly and ad nauseam in your previous letters you wrote about "technique," which was the reason for the letter to which you did not reply. What I answered to that, and what I answer again is, There is the conventional meaning, which is being given more and more to the word technique, and the real meaning - science. . . .

For instance, they say of Haverman - and so do you - that he has so much technique. . . . What I assert is simply this, that drawing a figure academically correctly - that an even, premeditated stroke of the brush - have little to do - at least less than is generally supposed - with the urgent necessities of the domain of the painting art nowadays.

. . . Perhaps you will understand what I mean if I say that, when Haverman sits before a nice ladylike girl's head, he will make it more beautiful than almost anybody else, but put him before a peasant - and - he won't even start in, his art seeming to apply (as far as I know) principally to subjects that are just about exactly antipodean to Millet's or Lhermitte's - and that are on the contrary rather analogous to Cabanel's, who for all his, what I call, métier, has produced little that has proved lasting, or contributed to progress. And - I beseech you - don't confuse this with the style of painting of a Millet or Lhermitte.

Letter R52
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Maligning the unorthodox

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

But Gerome's "Prisoner," his "Syrian Shepherds" are real, and I admire them just as much as anybody, and willingly and readily. But for the most part he is a second Delaroche, both are of equal value, considered in the framework of their time. Now what I assert and think most probable is that the whole situation will bore you more and more each year. Further, I assert that it is doing a bad turn to others, and especially to oneself, to let oneself be bored. In spite of many wise maxims I have never been able to believe that it may be of any practical use, or for one's own good, to be bored. A good many people have reformed themselves at the age of thirty and have changed considerably. Think this over in all calmness; I tell you that of all I have learned and heard at Goupil & co.'s about art, nothing has held true. If one reverses the commonplaces which count there as the highest wisdom in art matters, namely applauding the former and present Delaroche style and maligning the unorthodox modern painters, I repeat, if one reverses certain sayings - one breathes a purer air.

Letter 411
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Truth has a beauty of its own

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early June 1884

Fromentin says of Ruysdael that at present they are much further advanced in technique than he was, also much more advanced than Cabat, who sometimes greatly resembles Ruysdael in his stately simplicity, for instance in the picture at the Luxembourg.

But has what Ruysdael, what Cabat, said become untrue or superfluous for that reason? No, it's the same with Israels, with De Groux too (De Groux was very simple).

But if one says what one has to say clearly, strictly speaking, isn't that enough? And it may become more pleasant to hear if it is said with more charm, something I do not disdain, yet it does not add very much to the beauty of what is true, because truth has a beauty of its own.

Letter 371
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I am little curious

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early June 1884

Well, it is the same with figure painting as it is with landscape. I mean Israels paints a white wall quite differently from Regnault or Fortuny.

And consequently, the figure stands out quite differently against it.

When I hear you mention so many new names, it is not always easy for me to understand because I have seen absolutely nothing of them. And from what you told me about "impressionism," I have indeed concluded that it is different from what I thought, but it's not quite clear to me what it really is.

But for my part, I find Israels, for instance, so enormously great that I am little curious about or desirous for other or newer things.

Letter 371
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The confidence that it will come out right

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 23-28 June 1883

As I write you, I think of that evening - perhaps you remember it, though it is years ago - when you and I together spent an evening with Mauve, when he was still living near the barracks, and he gave us a photograph of a drawing of his, a plow.

Little did I dream at the time that I myself should become a draftsman, nor could I think at the time that difficulties would ever arise between Mauve and me.

I always wonder at our not having made up, the more so because really, if one considers it thoroughly, there is hardly any difference of opinion between us. However, it is so long ago now that my good spirits with regard to my work and the confidence that it will come out right after all are beginning to return. I have experienced that before, notwithstanding everything, but one can't help getting upset and having a melancholy feeling when such persons disapprove of it or say that you are on the wrong track.

Letter 296
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Regular monthly wages

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

Boughton and Abbey together are making drawings called “Picturesque Holland” for Harper's in New York (agent for the Graphic too). . . . Now I say to myself, If the Graphic and Harper's send their draftsmen to Holland, perhaps they would not be unwilling to take on a draftsman from Holland if he can produce some good work and not too expensively.

I should prefer being put on regular monthly wages to selling a drawing now and then at a relatively high price. And I should like to make a contract for a series of compositions, for instance, following up these two drawings I am working on now, or those I am going to do. I should think it advisable to go to London myself with studies and drawings and to visit the managers of the various establishments or, better still, the artists Herkomer, Green, Boughton (but some of them are in America at present) or others, if they are in London. . . . Such a thing, more or less modified, ought to be done, I think.

Letter 288
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Two drawings in my heart

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

Now you write that business is less flourishing. This is rotten enough. But the position has always been precarious, and may be expected to remain so as long as you live. Let us keep up our courage, and try to find energy and serenity. . . .

. . . if circumstances become more difficult, let us redouble our energy. I will be doubly intent on my drawings, but for the present do be doubly intent on sending the money. To me it means models, studio, bread; cutting it down would be something like choking or drowning me. I mean, I can do as little without it now as I can do without air. I had these two drawings in my heart for a long time, but I did not have the money to carry them out; and now, thanks to Rappard's money, they have got form. The creative power cannot be repressed, one must give vent to what one feels.

Letter 288
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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Mauve between two art dealers

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 20 May 1883

Well, adieu, I hope your letter will arrive soon, for I have gone through my money again. I saw Arnold in town with somebody else, perhaps Trip, they were walking with Mauve, but I saw them only from a distance. As Mauve was in the middle, it reminded me of "Christ between Two Thieves", or the group silhouetted against a sunny wall made me think of somebody arrested by two policemen.

However, these are merely imaginings, "things as they might be seen."

Letter 285
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I made him draw many things

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 20 May 1883

These last days, or rather weeks, I have had the very pleasant company of a young land surveyor who tried his hand at drawing. He once showed me drawings, which I thought very bad, and I told him why I thought them so bad.

Of course I never expected to hear from him again after that; but one day he returned - he has more leisure now, might he come with me to work outdoors? Well, Theo, the fellow has got the knack of landscape drawing so well that at present he brings home really charming sketches of meadow, wood and dune. . . .

The things he made before I knew him were horrible daubs, most of them hideous. I began by telling him that at first he had to confine himself to drawing for some time. I made him draw many things which he did not like at all, but he trusted me in this. Now this morning he asked me if he couldn't try his hand at painting again, and now it came off very well, and he has scraped off all his old things.

Letter 285
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I won't fight them

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

I am very sorry you did not come after all, but that is not your fault. I have had some scruples up to now about going to you, because so many would rather have my room than my company, and also because I think visiting an unpleasant chore in general. And here in The Hague this is partly because I have taken the woman and her two children into my house, and they think that for decency's sake they must not associate with me at all. But having heard from yourself your conditional opinion, which is so different from the behavior of others, I think I can drop my scruples.

I act in this way: if anybody avoids me on account of this, I do not seek his company; I prefer staying away somewhere to not being welcome. The more so because I can make allowances a little, a very little, just a tiny wee little bit, for the prejudice of those who consider, or try to consider, only the social conventions, for which reason I leave them alone, especially as I look upon it as a weakness, so that I won't fight them, or at least I won't attack them.

Letter R34
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One seeking something true and sound

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

If I object to a certain new style, this certainly does not refer to the style of Israels, Mauve, Maris - no. No! This is the best style, in my opinion, but something has resulted from it recently which - though there seems to be a resemblance - is in utter contradiction to the style of these masters, and that is what I disapprove of. Van der Weele, for instance, is more serious and keeps to the straight path. I saw his studies last Sunday.

Now I believe that the path you are following is straight too, but I'm not sure that certain things are not divergences in the direction I mentioned just now. I am quite willing to take this opinion back - but it is my impression. Well, I for my part am also trying to find the path I think best, let's say the path of Israels, Mauve, Maris - I have no idea how far I have progressed on it - and know even less how far I shall progress on it - but I have done my best and shall go on doing my best. And this being so, it is as far from my intention as the north is from the south to object to your decorations in the manner or the tone of a schoolmaster; but, on the contrary, I do so as one who is himself seeking after something true and sound - and serious - not because I have found it already, but serious because I am searching for it myself too.

Letter R34
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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What one might be

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

Do you share my opinion about your responsibility and about what depends on your position? - I'm not quite sure. There are two viewpoints for everyone: what one is and what one might be. In my opinion we must not shut ourselves up in the former with a "clear" conscience. The latter we must consider a formidable reality superior to our feelings; for, however imperfect and full of faults we may be, we shall never be justified in secretly concealing the ideal and all that approaches the eternal, as if all that were none of our business. For a number of reasons I consider your position very important under the present circumstances. Perhaps this makes me feel gloomier toward you. I ask myself, "What shall I do? Whose side is he on?"

Letter R34
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Trifles take on the biggest proportions

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 4-6 May 1883

I saved up a stamp on purpose, to be able to write to you once more. . . .

If you are strained yourself, send me less than usual if it must be; but send it as soon as possible. For next week I have an arrangement with Van der Weele to go and paint in the dunes - he will show me a few things which I do not know yet.

I have been working in the dunes for some days, but I long for a model: otherwise I cannot go on.

In short, I feel rather worried. So write as soon as possible. As for the work, I am getting on pretty well, and I think you would like some of the drawings I have on hand now.

. . . Write soon, boy, for it is very unpleasant to be without a cent. It makes trifles take on the biggest proportions.

Letter 283
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The difficulties are often brain-wracking

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

When your money arrived this morning, I had been without money - absolutely without a penny - for about a week. Besides, all my drawing material was used up. . . .

I am very, very sorry I have to ask for it, but if there is the slightest possibility, send me another 10 francs. A week's work depends on it, for I cannot expect an answer from Rappard right away. I am already hard up, and have made arrangements with models. After Rappard sends me the money, the time will come when things will run smoothly again. If you can send it, this week will pass without a hitch; if not, the damage will be unpleasant. But do not be angry with me; it was a combination of expenses, all strictly necessary, which I could not avoid. And if you cannot send it - well, it will not kill us. The difficulties in small matters, even when small sums of money are involved, are often really brain-wracking, and this is such a case. I hope Rappard will be able to help me a little, for I need it as much as a meadow needs the rain after a long drought.

Letter 282
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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What I so greatly want

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 30 May 1882

Today or tomorrow being the 1st of June, I promised to pay my landlord 5 guilders rent of studio for the month of April + 7.50 guilders for last month, makes 12.50 guilders.

But not having up to now received any letter of yours since that of May 12th, I have nothing to pay him his twelve guilders and 50 c. with. The man will surely not give me any longer delay, but they can immediately sell my furniture publicly. Whatever may be your opinion concerning the things I told you do not let it come to this scandal, my drawings for C. M. are ready, but I shall not be able to get that money early enough. I say again, let us at all events avoid irregularity and public scandal, and talk and write calmly on the subject, till we know what ought to be done. Therefore I hope you will send me what I so greatly want, and will write. I work day and night, and have a small drawing ready for you, which I will send by and by. I have no money for a stamp, excuse the postcard.

Letter 203
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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If you do not forsake me

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

I hope you have received the drawings I sent I think about May 10. There were twenty-five of them in a portfolio; I have not heard from you about them.

I do wish there were a few other people for whom I could do something on the same conditions as C. M.'s. And especially that C. M. continues to order, for these drawings are much better than the first, and by and by I shall do them even better. And at that price he certainly isn't getting a bad bargain.

You know how it is: if you do not forsake me because of Sien, then I shall be full of courage. And at four in the morning I am already at my work, so I shall get through with a little sympathy from those who know me. I am longing for your letter, a handshake in thought, but do write soon and deliver me from the landlord.

Letter 202
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Deliver me from the landlord

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

But, brother, it has been a hard fortnight for me. When I wrote you about the middle of May, I had only 3 or 3.50 guilders left after I had paid the baker; and I have had hardly anything to eat but dry black bread with some coffee, . . . .

Now I have to pay the house rent on the first of June, and I have nothing, literally nothing. I hope you will send something.

A week ago I felt very faint from continuous sleeplessness. Now that I have had some luck with a few drawings and the order for C. M. is almost finished, I have new courage and am a little calmer.

But, brother, do write to me soon and deliver me from the landlord, for you know he won't be put off.

Letter 202
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Should one so much as waver

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

As for Durand-Ruel - though he didn't consider the drawings worth bothering with, do show him this painting. Let him think it ugly, I don't mind - but let him have a look at it all the same, let people see that we put some effort into our endeavors. No doubt you'll hear "What a daub!" Be prepared for that, as I am prepared myself. Yet we must go on providing something genuine and honest.

Painting peasant life is a serious business, and I for one would blame myself if I didn't try to make pictures that give rise to serious reflection in those who think seriously about art and life.

Millet, De Groux, so many others, have set an example of character by turning a deaf ear to such taunts as "nasty, crude, filthy, stinking", etc., etc., so it would be a disgrace should one so much as waver. No, one must paint peasants as if one were one of them, as if one felt and thought as they do. Being unable to help what one actually is.

Letter 404
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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To see it as it should be seen

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

As for the Potato Eaters - it is a painting that will do well in gold - of that I am certain. But it would do just as well on a wall papered in a deep shade of ripe corn. However, it simply mustn't be seen without being set off in this way. It will not appear to full advantage against a dark background and especially not against a dull background. And that is because it is a glimpse into a very gray interior. In real life it is also set in a gold frame, as it were, because the hearth and the light from the fire on the white walls would be nearer the spectator - they are situated outside the painting, but in its natural state the whole thing is projected backwards.

Once again, it must be set off by putting something colored a deep gold or copper round it. Please bear that in mind if you want to see it as it should be seen. Associating it with a gold tone lends brightness to areas where you would least expect it, and at the same time does away with the marbled aspect it assumes if it is unfortunately placed against a dull or black background. The shadows are painted with blue and the gold color sets this off.

Letter 404
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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On condition that he shows it

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

But now I have something to say about Portier. Of course I am not wholly indifferent to his private opinion and I also appreciate his saying that he does not take back anything of what he has said. Nor do I mind that he apparently failed to hang these first studies. But - if he wants me to send him a painting intended for him, then he can only have it on condition that he shows it.

Letter 404
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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They will change their minds

Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard, from Nuenen, April 1884

I hope you will come. Of course you will bring along your tools, and the more you bring of your work the better I shall like it. I should like to see that sketch of the "Females of Terschelling" and the "Little Weaver" again. . . .

I think that when you come it will be a good opportunity to bring with you all the drawings of mine that you have at home. Then we can resume our work together on a number of new subjects, if you feel like it.

It is always a good thing to let one's work wander around a bit; and if people don't like it, well, never mind - show it again later anyway. If some people you've happened to show these studies to have disapproved of them or laughed at them or said of them no matter what, they will change their minds if they continue to see them over and over again - not all of them, but some.

Letter R45
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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One succeeds in convincing a few people

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

You must by no means suppose that I have great illusions about the appreciation of my work; I think one must be satisfied if one succeeds in convincing a few people of the seriousness of one's intentions, and is understood by them without flattery.

For the rest, if there is anything more than that, so much the better, but one must think about it as little as possible. But yet I believe the work must be seen, because the few friends will sift down from that very stream of passers-by. But one need not mind what people in general say and do.

Letter 366
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I shrug my shoulders

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

If I, for my part, have some confidence in my own work, it is also because it costs me too much effort for me to believe that nothing will be gained by it or that it is done in vain.

And I repeat, I shrug my shoulders at the banalities in which most connoisseurs seem to indulge more and more.

Letter 366
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A certain self-confidence

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

As to Rappard, it is curious what absurd things he sometimes hears about his work, which he takes quite coolly. One must be prepared for that, and have a certain self-confidence, so as not to let oneself be confounded or upset. Friends whose cordiality makes up for the bother the work causes are of great value to a painter. If you should feel personal sympathy for Rappard's work, he would certainly not feel indifferent toward you either.

But he as well as I, we are getting more and more disillusioned about finding sympathy, and are more and more determined to persevere without minding what anybody says.

Letter 365
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Calm neglect

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

But I shall not bore you with this. If you want to divide art - by drawing sharp, straight, rigid lines - into things that one may show in the full light of day and things that one should calmly neglect with great singleness of purpose - well, that's your affair.

And at the moment the whole question is so deeply repulsive to me that I for my part will not expiate on it.

Letter 365
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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It forces one to lose one's temper

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

It would be less impossible for me to keep my temper in our correspondence if, when on the critical date you have not got the money, you should write, I haven't got it, you will get it on such and such a date. Now you did not write a single word in response to my saying, I am surprised that - taking into consideration that you told me I could get the money by return mail if I wanted it, and my having told you that I would rather have it at once than later - I have not heard anything about it.

If you had written at the time, I am sorry, but I haven't got it, I should not have tortured my brain with thoughts such as that you commit this negligence on purpose in order to make life a little more difficult for me. And - if you haven't got the money, I cannot reproach you with anything - but if you neglect sending it - on purpose or not on purpose, that does not matter - then it is something I wish you would unlearn - something that forces one to lose one's temper.

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I insist on your showing my work

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

I end with the assurance that in case you refuse to accept my proposal to send you my work regularly (you can do or not do whatever you like with it, at least as far as doing business with it is concerned, but at all events I insist on your showing it from time to time, as you did at the very beginning, and in my opinion rightly so), I shall carry through the separation - so either this alteration - or else finished. . . .

I did not send you the sixth pen drawing because, just as I insist on your showing my work now and then, I am going to show Rappard something once in a while - as he knows a lot of people - and that drawing was at Rappard's, and I should have had it back, but up to now he has kept it.

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Your confidence in my future

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

When I mention that I desire to look upon the 150 francs, or more or less as the case may be, as equal in value to what I send you, this is to a certain extent quite a private matter, and in no way do we touch upon the question whether my work has commercial value or not.

But in that case I shall be more justified in the eyes of Tom, Dick and Harry, and shall not have to put up with being reproached with idling away my time - or even being absolutely looked upon as "having no means of subsistence."

At the same time it is proof on your part of your confidence in my future, which, however, I shall most certainly not extort from you - and I repeat that however you may decide in this matter, it will have no influence on my opinion of the past, and that I shall never ignore your help during these years, but on the contrary, appreciate it highly.

But you will have to decide quite independently whether our relations will be continued in the future or not.

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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You think too frivolously of my work

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

I sent you nine watercolors and five pen drawings, I wrote you I had yet a sixth pen drawing and the painted study of the old tower, which at the time you said you were eager for.

But now that I see that your expressions remain as vague as ever, I cannot but tell you without reserve that I do not consider this the way to treat me.

As for my work - up to now it seemed incontrovertible that you would rather I did not send anything than that I did.

If this is still the case - well then, I am of the opinion that either I am not worth your protection, or you think a little too frivolously of my work. I have never withdrawn my proposal to send you my work regularly.

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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A definite agreement

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

I said in my letter of the end of January that I should be unwilling to go on in the same way as up to then, that is to say, without a definite agreement.

. . . Nothing could be more pleasant to me than to go on in the same way on condition that a definite agreement was made about the supply of work. And that in order to make a trial I should send a number of things toward the beginning of March.

Your reply was evasive, it certainly was not straightforward, I mean it was not something like this: "Vincent, I see the reasonableness of a number of your grievances, and I approve of your proposal to make an agreement that every month you will send me a number of drawings that you consider equal in value to the 150 francs I am in the habit of sending you, so that you will be able to look upon this money as earned money."

Most positively I noticed that you did not simply write something like this!

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Making me feel the bridle

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from Nuenen, early April 1884

Last summer, because of your making me feel the bridle a little in order to impress upon me that it was in my interest to be compliant in some things, I had already made up my mind to let you feel in return that I for my part, if I were inconvenienced by too much tugging at the bridle, should be quite willing to leave the bridle in your hands, as long as I was not attached to the other end, or in other words - if I am not free in my private life, I decline the subsidy. In short, that whether I should be able to get along financially would depend on my work (and not on my private life), at least as far as the 150 francs a month was concerned.

Letter 363a
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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At thirty you will still be young

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, early April 1882

I have sat down to write you several times, but I couldn't bring myself to finish the letter. The reason was that I wanted to write about several things which had made me think the necessity of your becoming a painter so very evident. But what I had written wasn't quite right, and I couldn't find words strong enough.

Your objections are true, but on the other hand there are many other things which counterbalance them. By thirty you would have made such progress that people would have to acknowledge you as a painter and value your work. And at thirty you will still be young.

What you have learned at Goupil's, your knowledge of many things, will simply enable you to overtake many who "started early." For those early beginners often have a sterile period, remaining on the same level for years; someone who begins energetically later on need not go through such a period.

Letter 184
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Poetry on all sides

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

We are surrounded by poetry on all sides, but putting it on paper is, alas, not as readily done as looking at it. . . .

To my mind the cold spell we had last week was the most perfect part of this winter. It was fantastically beautiful, what with the snow and the curious skies. The thawing of the snow today was almost more beautiful still. But it was typical winter weather, if I may call it that - the kind of weather that awakens old memories and lends the most ordinary things the sort of look one cannot help associating with stories from the age of stagecoaches and post chaises.

. . . Lately everything has a certain je ne sais quoi, which makes one feel like getting it down quickly on paper. Still, the whole of nature is an indescribably beautiful Black and White exhibition during such snow effects.

Letter 276
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Why shouldn't more painters join hands?

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

It sometimes seems to me that the prices of the various painting and drawing materials are terribly inflated. So that it thwarts many a person from painting. . . .

I am privileged above many others, but I cannot do everything which I might have the courage and energy to undertake. The expenses are so extensive, beginning with a model and food and housing, and ending with the different colors and brushes.

And that is also like a weaving loom, where the different threads must be kept apart.

But we all have to bear up against the same thing - so just because everyone who paints or draws has to hear it, and if alone would almost sink down under it, why shouldn't more painters join hands, to work together, like soldiers of the rank and file; and why, especially, are those branches of art which are least expensive so much despised?

Letter 274
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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It stimulates one to work hard

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 6 March 1883

I didn't intend to write so soon again - but as you know, I am trying to do different kinds of drawings. And now again today I made another sketch with the rest of that little piece of crayon - and afterward washed it in with sepia. I think I find in this crayon all kinds of qualities which make it an excellent means of expressing things from nature....

You can imagine that I am full of plans.

You know that I am working on many different things, for I should so much like to know many different techniques; because it stimulates one to work hard, and creates new ideas.

I wish I had thought of that crayon before, for it is preferable to many other things....

I don't ask you to send me some because I could not work without it, but because with it, I could make many other things in addition to my usual work.

Letter 273
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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A soul and life in that crayon

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

Will you do me a very great favor - send me a few pieces of that crayon by mail?

There is a soul and life in that crayon - I think conte pencil is dead. Two violins may look the same on the outside, but in playing them, one sometimes finds a beautiful tone in one, and not in the other.

Now that crayon has a great deal of tone or depth. I could almost say, That crayon knows what I want, it listens with intelligence and obeys; the conte pencil is indifferent and unwilling.

The crayon has a real gypsy soul; if it isn't asking too much of you, send me some of it.

Letter 272
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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Shall I succeed?

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 3 March 1883

Rappard always works with models, too, and in my opinion there is no better way. Especially if one sticks to one model, one finds more and more qualities in it. So this letter complements yesterday's, in so far as you will see from it that today I made a plan for a new watercolor of the same kind I sent you, and that tomorrow I shall have the models for it. I hope to finish this one more thoroughly than the one I sent you. Shall I succeed? I can't tell beforehand.

I started, though I am still short of a few things. But one thing I have now that I didn't have before, and that is the better light. And it is worth more to me than ever so many colors. If I can have the colors too, please let me have them; but I have had so many things from you already, and in many respects I am so little satisfied with the result, till now, that I hardly dare to ask for them. As in algebra the product of two negatives is a positive, so I hope that the product of failures may be success.

Letter 271
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I am not quite satisfied

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 3 March 1883

Among the studies of heads - old men, etc. - which I still have, there are some which I will not be able to improve at once, because there is unquestionably some touch of nature in them, and at the same time something with which I am, of course, not quite satisfied; so I dare not say "I shall do it better in a few days."

But I mean something else by "better drawings," that is, drawn from a different point of view, and with more chiaroscuro in them, of which there is little or none in this winter's studies.

Letter 271
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I can promise you better drawings

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, c. 3 March 1883

I can promise you better drawings before long.

At all events, whether you can send me something or not, I can promise you better drawings before long.

The change in the studio itself, as far as it goes, enables me to undertake some new things already.

But there would be fewer obstacles in the way, if you could send me something extra just now. I am afraid that otherwise I should be checked by some things, either by the lack of drawing materials or by not being able to take models, or by the making of a few more alterations.

I mention "better drawings," this is meant comparatively.

Letter 271
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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I hate this so much

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

I should not want anybody to see just this one sketch of mine, because I myself think nothing is right in this sketch except the general aspect, and I will wrestle with the figures till I get in watercolor what they are beginning to get in lithography - that is, more character and effect.

It is not pleasant to make sketches like the one I sent you, and then not to be able to finish them; I hate this so much that I rarely make them, except as a trial to see if I have made any progress. But now I have new courage and interest, just because I have been making a great many studies again. . . .

The desire to make them is not wanting, but I expect new failures - which I hope, however will have something in them to encourage rather than to make one lose courage though they are failures.

Letter 270
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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To make something serious

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 25 February 1882

Of course I should be very happy to sell a drawing, but I am happier still when a real artist like Weissenbruch says about an unsaleable??? study or drawing, "That is true to nature, I could work from it myself." Although money is of great value to me, especially now, the principal thing is for me to make something serious. . . .

It may take a longer or a shorter time, but the surest way is to penetrate deep into nature. "It remains to be true," Gavarni says. One may be in pecuniary difficulties for some time; but one gets over that, and then the drawings that were refused at first are sold.

Letter 177
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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The sacred fire

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

Francois Coppee's "Desir dans le spleen" especially I think so true, it paints how, in those very souls that are exhausted and on the verge of dropping, there arises at moments that infinite renewal of desire, as if they had no past behind them. I thought of Rembrandt's "Jewish Bride," and what Thore says of it. Thore in his prime, and Theophile Gautier and so many others - how things have changed since then - and how much duller everything has become. If one wants to keep some of the sacred fire alive nowadays, in short, one must show it as little as possible to others.

Letter 357
Translation courtesy of Robert Harrison.
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