 |
"I believe that the time will come when I too shall sell, but I am so far behind with you, and while I go on spending, I bring nothing in. Sometimes the thought of it saddens me."
Vincent van Gogh |
 |
Letter |
Keywords |
Excerpt / Full Text |
Link to Painting(s) Mentioned in Letter |
| 463
21 February 1888 | Tarascon, Monticelli | During my journey I thought of you at least as much as I did of the new country I was seeing. | --- |
| 464
c. 25 February 1888 | Reid, Monticelli, Koning, Rivet, Bernard, Zeim, Tarascon | . . . the museum in Arles is a horror and a humbug . . . | Pork-Butcher's Shop Seen from a Window, A: F 389, JH 1359; Old Woman of Arles, An: F 390, JH 1357; Snowy Landscape with Arles in the Background: F 391, JH 1358 |
| 465
26-28 February 1888 | Tersteeg, Reid, Van Wisselingh, Boussod, Valadon, Mesdag | Full Text | --- |
| 466
c. 3 March 1888 | Tersteeg, Gauguin, Russell, Koning | Do as you think best about the exhibition of the Independents. | Vegetable Gardens at Montmartre: F 316, JH 1246; Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre: F 350, JH 1245; Snowy Landscape with Arles in the Background: F 391, JH 1358; Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass: F 392, JH 1361; Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book: F 393, JH 1362 |
| 467
c. 9 March 1888 | Lucien Pissarro, Gauguin, Russell, Tartarin on the Alps, Tersteeg, Mrs. Mauve | I firmly believe in the ultimate victory, but will the artists themselves gain any advantage from it, and will they see less troubled days?
It would be some comfort, however, if one could think that a generation of more fortunate artists was to come. | Still Life with Basket of Apples (to Lucien Pissaro): F 378, JH 1340; Still Life with Basket and Six Oranges: F 395, JH 1363 |
| 468
10 March 1888 | Tersteeg, Kaiser Wilhelm, Claude Monet, Renoir, Sisley, C. Pissarro, Guillaumin, Seurat, Gauguin, Grand Boulevard, Portier, Mourier Petersen, Heyerdahl, Kroyer | I am continually thinking about the association of artists, and the plan has developed further in my mind. | Still Life with French Novels and a Rose: F 359, JH 1332 |
| 469
c. 14 March 1888 | Tersteeg, Signac, Koning, Zola, de Goncourt, Bernard, de Lautrec, Gauguin, Jan and Hubert van Eyck | I believe in the absolute necessity of a new art of colour, of design, and – of the artistic life. And if we work in that faith, it seems to me that there is a chance that we do not hope in vain. | Vegetable Gardens at Montmartre: F 316, JH 1246; Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre: F 350, JH 1245; Gleize Bridge over the Viguérat Canal, The: F 396, JH 1367; Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; Avenue of Plane Trees near Arles Station: F 398, JH 1366 |
| 470
18 March 1888 | Bernard, Lautrec, Gauguin, Pierre et Jean, Guy de Maupassant, Flaubert, Zouaves, Millet, Daubigny | . . . nothing maddens [Gauguin] more than the lack of money, and yet he feels doomed to perpetual beggary. | Two Lovers (Fragment): F 544, JH 1369 |
| 471
24 March 1888 | Tersteeg, Monticelli, Diaz, Delacroix, Gauguin, Russell, Bernard, Mauve, Seurat, Reid | But through it doesn't matter in the least this time, in the future my name ought to be put in the catalogue as I sign it on the canvas, namely Vincent and not Van Gogh, for the simple reason that they do not know how to pronounce the latter name here. | Seine with the Pont de Clichy, The: F 303, JH 1323; Langlois Bridge at Arles with Road alongside the Canal, The: F 400, JH 1371; Two Lovers (Fragment): F 544, JH 1369; Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees: F 555, JH 1380; |
| 472
30 March 1888 | Mauve, Tersteeg, Reid, Guillaumin, Koning | I find painting hard work because of the wind, but I fasten my easel to pegs driven into the ground and work in spite of it, it is too lovely. | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Orchard in Blossom: F 511, JH 1386 |
| 473
c. 2 April 1888 | Jet Mauve, Breitner, L. Pissarro, Reid, Wil, Tersteeg, Russell, Théatre Libre, Boyer, Koning, Vignon, M. Gendre, Weissenbruch | I'm up to my ears in work, for the trees are in blossom and I want to paint a Provençal orchard of astounding gaiety. | Couples in the Voyer d'Argenson Park at Asnieres: F 314, JH 1258; Vegetable Gardens at Montmartre: F 316, JH 1246; Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre: F 350, JH 1245; Still Life with Basket of Apples (to Lucien Pissaro): F 378, JH 1340; Still Life with Basket of Apples: F 379, JH 1341; Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Still Life with Basket and Six Oranges: F 395, JH 1363; Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; Old Man with his Head in his Hands ("At Eternity's Gate"): F 1662, JH 268 |
| 474
9 April 1888 | Tersteeg, Mauve, Pissarro, Seurat, Bernard, Kahn, Rousseau, Koning | I'm very curious to know what the result will be at the end of a year. I hope that by that time I shall be less bothered with breakdowns. | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Orchard in Blossom (probably Plum Trees): F 511, JH 1386; Pink Peach Trees: F 1469, JH 1384; Langlois Bridge at Arles, The: F 1480, JH 1382 |
| 475
c. 4 April 1888 | Tasset, l'Hôte | Haven't a cent at the moment, as I told you before. | --- |
| 476
c. 11 April 1888 | Tersteeg, Jet Mauve, Tanguy, Marat's "Incarnation", Guy de Maupassant, de Lautrec, Tasset, Maris, Mauve, Israëls, Delacroix, Koning | But just because it's what people have in their hearts that matters, and it is at the heart of all business dealings too, we must make friendships in Holland, or rather revive them. More especially since, as far as the Impressionists cause is concerned, there is little fear now that we shall not win. | Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Langlois Bridge at Arles, The: F 571, JH 1392 |
| 477
c. 13 April 1888 | Guillaumin, Koning, Bernard | I have had a letter from Bernard with some sonnets he has concocted and some of them really come off quite well. He'll manage to write a good sonnet yet: a thing I could very nearly envy him. | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; Peach Tree in Blossom: F 404, JH 1391; Blossoming Pear Tree: F 405, JH 1394; Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses: F 513, JH 1389; Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 551, JH 1396; Langlois Bridge at Arles, The: F 571, JH 1392 |
| 478
c. 21 April 1888 | Koning, Universal Exhibition Bougueceau, Lefèvre, Benjamin Constant, Daumier, Gavarni, Bernard | . . . I doubt the truth of the legend of Monticelli drinking such enormous quantities of absinthe. When I look at his work, I can't think it possible that a man who was flabby with drink could have done that. | Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; Orchard in Blossom: F 406, JH 1399; Orchard with Blossoming Plum Trees (The White Orchard): F 1414, JH 1385; Orchard with Arles in the Background: F 1516, JH 1376 |
| 479
c. 24 April 1888 | McKnight, Russell, Boussod, Valadon | [McKnight] is a Yankee, and probably paints much better than most Yankees do, but a Yankee all the same.
Happily for me, I am not the sort of fellow who cares for nothing in the world but pictures. | Vegetable Gardens at Montmartre: F 316, JH 1246; Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre: F 350, JH 1245; Orchard with Blossoming Plum Trees (The White Orchard): F 1414, JH 1385; Orchard with Arles in the Background: F 1516, JH 1376 |
| 480
1 May 1888 | Bernard, Russell, Guillaumin, McKnight, Raffaëlli, Edmond de Goncourt, Jules Breton, Gauguin | Once again, it's patience I need to see me through, and perseverance. | Orchard in Blossom: F 406, JH 1399; Orchard in Blossom: F 1476, JH 1409; Public Garden with Benches: F 1487, JH 1410; Public Garden with Vincent's House in the Background: F 1513, JH 1412 |
| 481
c. 3 May 1888 | Koning, McKnight, Renoir, Goya, Velasquez, Monticelli, Gruby, Degas, Rivet, Pangloss | I think very often of Renoir and that pure clean line of his. That's just how things and people look in this clear air.
And at the end of the year I should be a different man. | --- |
| 482
c. 4 May 1888 | Koning, Mignard, Mantegna, Fragonard, Renoir, Monticelli, Guy de Maupassant, Rodin, Manet, Guillaumin, Russell, Reid, McKnight, De Groux, Braekeleer | But the painter of the future will be a colourist such as has never yet existed. Manet was working toward it, but as you know the impressionists have already got a stronger colour than Manet. But this painter who is to come - I can't imagine him living in little cafés, working away with a lot of false teeth, and going to the Zouave's brothels, as I do. | --- |
| 483
c. 7 May 1888 | Degas, Meunier, Henri de Braekeleer, Los Rios de Guadalquivir, Monet, Rappard, Schaerbeek, Hypolyte Boulanger | You will see by the letters in question that I have taken a studio, an entire 4-room house at 180 francs a year. Now the thing is to go and sleep there. I am going to buy a mat and a mattress and blanket today. | --- |
| 484
c. 7 May 1888 | Bernard, Gauguin | But all the same, now that I am feeling better, I won't give in . . . . | Path through a Field with Willows: F 407, JH 1402; Landscape with Path and Pollard Trees: F 1499, JH 1372 |
| 485
c. 10 May 1888 | McKnight, Mauve | If you would put on one side the best things in what I have sent, and consider these pictures as payment to be deducted from what I owe you. | White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Orchard in Blossom (probably Plum Trees): F 511, JH 1386; Langlois Bridge at Arles, The: F 571, JH 1392 |
| 486
10 May 1888 | Jet Mauve, Tersteeg | I consider that I am after all a workman, and not a coddled foreigner travelling for pleasure. | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The: F 397, JH 1368; White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Peach Tree in Blossom: F 404, JH 1391; Orchard in Blossom (probably Plum Trees): F 511, JH 1386; Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses: F 513, JH 1389; Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 551, JH 1396; Langlois Bridge at Arles, The: F 571, JH 1392; Orchard with Blossoming Plum Trees (The White Orchard): F 1414, JH 1385 |
| 487
12 May 1888 | Tersteeg | A little town surrounded by fields all covered with yellow and purple flowers; exactly – can't you see it? – like a Japanese dream. | Farmhouse in a Wheat Field: F 408, JH 1417; View of Arles with Irises in the Foreground: F 409, JH 1416; Farmhouse with Wheat Field along a Road: F 1415, JH 1408; Field with Flowers: F 1416r, JH 1415; Meadow with Flowers: F 1474, JH 1407 |
| 488
c. 15 May 1888 | Tasset, Koning, Russell, Daumier, Renoir, Cézanne, Monticelli | Full Text | Lane near Arles, A: F 567, JH 1419; Langlois Bridge at Arles, The: F 570, JH 1421 |
| 489
c. 20 May 1888 | Gruby, Rivet, Mme. la Contesse de la Boissière, Degas, Corot, Puvis de Chavannes | In the fullness of artistic life there is, and remains, and will always come back at times, that homesick longing for the truly ideal life that can never come true. | Still Life: Blue Enamel Coffeepot, Earthenware and Fruit: F 410, JH 1426; Still Life: Majolica Jug with Wildflowers: F 600, JH 1424 |
| 490
26 May 1888 | L'Intransigeant, Durand Ruel, Caillebotte, Bernard, Gauguin, Mourier Petersen, Pierre Loti, Daumier, Gruby | What is always urgent is the drawing, and whether you do it straight off with the brush or with something else, say a pen, you never get enough done. | Ruins of Montmajour: F 1417, JH 1434; Landscape with Tree in the Foreground: F 1418, JH 1431; Plain of La Crau, The: F 1419, JH 1430; Ruins of Montmajour: F 1423, JH 1433; Plain of La Crau, The: F 1448, JH 1432; Landscape with Arles in the Background: F 1475, JH 1435; Hill with Bushes: F 1493, JH 1436 |
| 491
27 May 1888 | Tasset, Koning | I am working with pleasure. | --- |
| 492
28 May 1888 | Tersteeg, Mauve, Gruby, Boussod & Co., Détaille, Mourier, Gauguin, Bernard, Monet, Koning, Goupil | Would you like me to go to America with you?
. . . can't you see that similarly self-sacrifice, living for other people, is a mistake if it involves suicide, for in that case you actually turn your friends into murderers. | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses: F 513, JH 1389; Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 551, JH 1396 |
| 493
28 May 1888 | Gauguin, Koning, Bernard, Tersteeg | And this would be the beginning of an association. Bernard, who is also coming South, will join us, and truly, I can see you at the head of an Impressionist Society in France yet. | --- |
| 494
c. 5 June 1888 | Gauguin, Tasset, Wagner, Régamey, Méryon | I believe in the victory of Gauguin and the other artists . . . . | --- |
| 495
29 May 1888 | The Pissarros, Gruby, Gauguin, Tersteeg, Thomas | Early tomorrow I start for Saintes-Maries on the Mediterranean. | View of Arles from a Hill: F 1452, JH 1437 |
| 496
12 June 1888 | Gauguin, Laval, Mourier, Monticelli, Russell, McKnight, Ruysdael, Salomon Koninck, Rembrandt, Michel, Jules Dupré, Monet, Durand Ruel, Rodin | I am working on a new subject, fields green and yellow as far as the eye can reach. | Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Harvest Landscape: F 1483, JH 1439; Harvest in Provence, at the Left Montmajour: F 1484, JH 1438 |
| 497
12 or 13 June 1888 | Gauguin, Cézanne, Delacroix, Portier, Zola | If Gauguin were willing to join me, I think it would be a step forward for us. It would establish us squarely as the explorers of the South. | Vegetable Gardens at Montmartre: F 316, JH 2146; Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre: F 350, JH 1245; White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Still Life: Blue Enamel Coffeepot, Earthenware and Fruit: F 410, JH 1426; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Haystacks in Provence: F 425, JH 1442 |
| 498
c. 15 June 1888 | Gauguin, Tasset, Monet, Tersteeg, Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Flaubert, Van der Meer of Delft, Rembrandt, Reid, Gabriel de la Roquette, Pissarro, McKnight, Anquetin, Thomas, Mourier, Russell, Gérôme | I feel that life is so short and goes so fast; well, being a painter, one must paint after all. | Still Life: Blue Enamel Coffeepot, Earthenware and Fruit: F 410, JH 1426; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Haystacks in Provence: F 425, JH 1442; Haystacks near a Farm: F 1425 JH 1441; Harvest in Provence, at the Left Montmajour: F 1484, JH 1438 |
| 499
Saintes-Maries | Gérôme, Tarascon | One night I went for a walk by the sea along the empty shore. It was not gay, but neither was it sad – it was – beautiful. | Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 415, JH 1452; View of Saintes-Maries: F 416, JH 1447; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 417, JH 1453; View of Saintes-Maries with Church and Ramparts: F 1439, JH 1446 |
| 500
5 June 1888 | Gauguin, Degas, Pissarro, Japan, Petit Boulevard, Anquetin, Lautrec, Seurat, Bernard | I am convinced that I shall set my individuality free simply by staying on here.
What Pissarro says is true, you must boldly exaggerate the effects of either harmony or discord which colours produce. | Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries: F 413, JH 1460; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 415, JH 1452; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 417, JH 1453; Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries: F 1428, JH 1458; Street in Saintes-Maries: F 1434, JH 1449; Three Cottages in Saintes-Maries: F 1438, JH 1448 |
| 501
21 June 1888 | Geffroy, Monet, Bernard, Gauguin, Millet, Lhermitte, Zouave, Dessins Raffaeli, Figaro, Caran d'Ache, Tasset | I have a model at last – a Zouave – a boy with a small face, a bull neck, and the eye of a tiger. | Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; Zouave (Half Length), The: F 423, JH 1486; Seated Zouave, The: F 424, JH 1488; Haystacks in Provence: F 425, JH 1442; Haystacks near a Farm: F 1425, JH 1441 |
| 502
23 June 1888 | Monet, Bismarck, Zouave, A B C D of Drawing, by A. Cassagne, Bordighera, Hyères, Geneva, Antibes, McKnight, Mourier | I am very dissatisfied with what I have been doing lately, because it is very ugly. But all the same, figure is interesting me more than landscape. | Zouave (Half Length), The: F 423, JH 1486; Zouave Sitting, Whole Figure: F 1443, JH 1485 |
| 503
28 June 1888 | Bernard, Tanguy, Delacroix, Millet, Israëls, Martin, Gauguin, Monticelli | Full Text | Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; Bridge at Trinquetaille, The: F 426, JH 1468 |
| 504
c. 7 July 1888 | Tasset, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Vignon, Bernard, Pissarro | I must warn you that everyone will think that I work too fast. Don't you believe a word of it. | Canal with Women Washing: F 427, JH 1490; Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses: F 513, JH 1389; Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 551, JH 1396; Canal with Bridge and Women Washing: F 1473, JH 1405 |
| 505
8 July 1888 | Tanguy, Guillaumin, Monet, Gauguin, Bing, Loti, A. Cassagne's the A B C D of Drawing, Russell, McKnight, Bock, Guillaumin, Lautrec, Schoeffenecker, Thomas, Bernard | As for the Tanguy business, don't get mixed up in it. Only I beg you not to risk entrusting him with the new pictures. | --- |
| 506
c. 9 July 1888 | Zola's Paradou, Bock, McKnight, Tanguy, Russell, Martin, Gauguin, Guy de Maupassant | Is that all, or is there more besides? In a painter's life death is not perhaps the hardest thing there is. | --- |
| 507
29 June 1888 | Tasset, Édouard, Picard, Leonardo da Vinci, Monticelli, Daumier, Corot, Daubigny, Roquette, Jules and Edmond de Goncourt, Millet, Delacroix, Wagner, Russell, Mourier, Delaroche | So now, when anyone says that such and such is done too quickly, you can reply that they have looked at it too quickly. | Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Haystacks in Provence: F 425, JH 1442; Harvest in Provence, at the Left Montmajour: F 1484, JH 1438 |
| 508
5 July 1888 | Russell, Balzac, César Birotteau | Often whole days pass without my speaking to anyone, except to ask for dinner or coffee. And it has been like that from the beginning.
But up to now the loneliness has not worried me much because I have found the brighter sun and its effect on nature so absorbing. | Sunny Lawn in a Public Park: F 428, JH 1499; Rocks with Oak Tree: F 466, JH 1489; |
| 509
c. 13 July 1888 | Gauguin, Thomas, Ruysdael, Tasset | Believe me I am tired out by these drawings. I have begun a painting as well, but there is no way of doing it with the mistral blowing – there's absolutely nothing doing. | Ruins of Montmajour: F 1417, JH 1434; La Crau Seen from Montmajour: F 1420, JH 1501; Landscape near Montmajour with Train: F 1424, JH 1502; Zouave Sitting, Whole Figure: F 1443, JH 1485; Hill with the Ruins of Montmajour: F 1446, JH 1504; Montmajour: F 1447, JH 1503; View of Arles from a Hill: F 1452, JH 1437; Harvest in Provence, at the Left Montmajour: F 1484, JH 1438; Olive Trees, Montmajour: No F no., JH Add. 3 |
| 510
15 July 1888 | Bing, Anquetin, Bernard, Cassagne, Thomas | Japanese art, decadent in its own country, takes root again among the French impressionist artists. | --- |
| 511
15 July 1888 | Hokusais, Loti, Mme. Crysanthème, Millet, Monticelli, Thoré, Anquetin, Bernard, Reid, Russell, Monet, Bing, Boulanger, Victor Hugo's L'Année Terrible, Gavarni's "Human Masquerade", Charles Keene | Japanese art is a thing like the Primitives, like the Greeks, like our old Dutchmen, Rembrandt, Potter, Hals, Van der Meer, Ostade, Ruysdael. They never pass away. | --- |
| 512
c. 19 July 1888 | Gauguin, Russell, McKnight, Bock, Prinsenhage, Ruysdael, Reid, Cézanne | And I truly can't tell if I shall ever paint pictures that are peaceful and quietly worked out, for it seems to me it will always be headlong. | Flowering Garden with Path: F 429, JH 1513; Flowering Garden: F 430, JH 1510; Garden with Flowers: F 1455, JH 1512 |
| 513
c. 22 July 1888 | Boussod, Boulanger, Garibaldi, Don Quixote, Brochart, London, New York, Gauguin, de Goncourt, Jules Dupré, McKnight | Why, a canvas I have covered is worth more than a blank canvas.
My dear brother, if I were not broke and crazy with this blasted painting, what a dealer I'd make just for the impressionists. | Flowering Garden with Path: F 429, JH 1513; Flowering Garden: F 430, JH 1510 |
|
514
c. 25 July 1888 | Gruby, Russell, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Monet, Redon, Rembrandt, Goya, Bernard, McKnight, Bock, Destrée, Millet, Zola, Hugo van der Goes, Emile Wauters, Boussod, Bismark | Now if you know what a 'mousmé' is (you will find out when you read Loti's Madame Chrysanthème), I have just painted one . . . . A mousmé is a Japanese girl - Provençal in this case - 12 to 14 years old. | La Mousmé, Sitting: F 431, JH 1519 |
| 515
c. 26 July 1888 | Gauguin, Russell, Mourier | Full Text | --- |
| 516
31 July 1888 | Gauguin, Russell, McKnight, Bernard, Bing | So at last our uncle's sufferings are over. | Flowering Garden with Path: F 429, JH 1513; Flowering Garden: F 430, JH 1510; La Mousmé, Sitting: F 431, JH 1519; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 432, JH 1522 |
| 517
c. 3 August 1888 | Gauguin, Russell | So now I am working on two figures, one the head, and one a half length with the hands, of an old postman in a dark blue uniform. He has a head like Socrates, interesting to paint. | Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 432, JH 1522; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 433, JH 1524; Haystacks near a Farm: F 1427, JH 1525; Fishing Boats at Sea: F 1430a, JH 1526; Fishing Boat at Sea, A: F 1433, JH 1528; Lawn with Weeping Tree: F 1449, JH 1534; Garden with Flowers: F 1454, JH 1532; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 1458, JH 1536; Zouave, Half-Figure: F 1482a, JH 1535; Harvest Landscape: F 1486, JH 1527; Wheat Field with Sheaves: F 1489, JH 1530; Wheat Field with Sheaves and Arles in the Background: F 1490, JH 1529; Road to Tarascon, The: F 1502a, JH 1531; La Mousmé, Half-Figure: F 1503, JH 1533 |
| 518
6 August 1888 | Cor, Russell, Rochefort, Lemud, Mephistopheles, Raoul, Hoffman, Edgar Poe, Delacroix, de Goncourt, Moses, Mahomet, Christ, Luther, Bunyan, Frans Hals, Rembrandt | I always feel I am a traveller, going somewhere and to some destination. If I tell myself that the somewhere and the destination do not exist, that seems to me very reasonable and likely enough. | Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 432, JH 1522; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 433, JH 1524; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575 |
| 519
8 August 1888 | Lemud, Monticelli, Daumier, Decamps, Diaz, Dupré, Meunier, Delacroix, Rousseau, Diaz, Monticelli, Isabey, Dupré, Jongkind, Ziem, Israëls, Corot, Jacque, Manet, Courbet, Quost, Jeannin, Millet, McKnight, Bock, Gauguin, Zola, Voltaire, Jan Steen, Ostade, Madame Chrysanthème, the Buteaux, Koning, Mourier, Cassagne, Lalouche, Chaussée d'Antin | And although I've knocked off some fifty drawings and painted studies here, I seem to have done absolutely nothing. I'd gladly content myself with being a pioneer for the other painters of the future who come to work in the South. | Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 415, JH 1452; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 417, JH 1453; Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; Seated Zouave, The: F 424, JH 1488; Sunny Lawn in a Public Park: F 428, JH 1499; Flowering Garden with Path: F 429, JH 1513; Flowering Garden: F 430, JH 1510; Fishing Boats at Sea: F 1430b, JH 1541; Fishing Boat at Sea, A: F 1431, JH 1542; Sower with Setting Sun: F 1441, JH 1543; Newly Mowed Lawn with Weeping Tree: F 1451, JH 1545; Garden with Flowers: F 1455, JH 1512; Garden with Flowers, A: F 1456, JH 1537; Garden with Sunflowers: F 1457, JH 1539; Harvest Landscape: F 1485, JH 1540 |
| 520
9 August 1888 | Lautrec, Delacroix, Tanguy, Daumier, the postman (Roulin), La Terre, Germinal, Millet | You are shortly to make the acquaintance of Master Patience Escalier . . . .
. . . . I am returning to the ideas I had in the country before I knew the impressionists. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 443, JH 1548; Portrait of Eugene Boch: F 462, JH 1574; Joseph Roulin, Three-Quarter-Length: F 1459, JH 1574; Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 1460, JH 1549 |
| 521
11 August 1888 | Tasset, Gruby, Russell, Prevost, Velasquez, Van der Meer of Delft | It's not a bad place, the South. | Garden with Flowers, A: F 1456, JH 1537 |
| 522
c. 13 August 1888 | Cassagne, La Fin de Lucie Pellegrin, da Vinci, Correggio, Rowlandson, Fragonard, Goya, Mourier, Gauguin, Coppée, General Boulanger | There is a sun, a light that for want of a better word I can only call yellow, pale sulphur yellow, pale golden citron. How lovely yellow is! | Encampment of Gypsies with Caravans: F 445, JH 1554; Railway Carriages: F 446, JH 1553; Thistles: F 447, JH 1550; Two Thistles: F 447a, JH 1551 |
| 523
c. 18 August 1888 | Bernard, Gauguin, Laval, École des Beaux-Arts | To be carefree, to hope that someday or another one will be free from want, what a dream! I should think myself very happy if I could work for a wage just sufficient to keep me in peace in my studio, all my life. | Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; Portrait of Patience Escalier, Shepherd in Provence: F 443, JH 1548; Garden with Flowers: F 1455, JH 1512; Garden with Flowers, A: F 1456, JH 1537; Garden with Sunflowers: F 1457, JH 1539; Joseph Roulin, Three-Quarter-Length: F 1459, JH 1547; Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 1460, JH 1549 |
| 524
c. 14 August 1888 | Tanguy, Delacroix, Bernard, Bouguereau, Zola, Gauguin, Moravian Brothers | So I have a horror of success, I am afraid of "the morning after the night before" of an impressionist success, even these difficult days will later seem to us "the good old times!" | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 415, JH 1452; Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; Bridge at Trinquetaille, The: F 426, JH 1468; Canal with Women Washing: F 427, JH 1490; Painter on His Way to Work, The: F 448, JH 1491; Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges: F 449, JH 1558; Garden with Flowers: F 1455, JH 1512; Garden with Flowers, A: F 1456, JH 1537; Garden with Sunflowers: F 1457, JH 1539; Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges: F 1462, JH 1556; Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges: no F number, JH 1557 |
| 524a 15 August 1888 [Telegram] | --- | Full Text | --- |
| 525
15 August 1888 | Milliet, Daumier, Monet, Guy de Maupassant, Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, Russell, Gauguin | If I had the faith to do it, I'd be a notable madman; now I am an insignificant one, but you see I am not sufficiently ambitious for that fame to set a match to the powder. | Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 432, JH 1522; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 433, JH 1524; Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges: F 1462, JH 1556 |
| 526
c. 21 August 1888 | Tasset, Koning | I am hard at it, painting with the enthusiasm of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when you know that what I'm at is the painting of some big sunflowers. | Coal Barges: F 437, JH 1570; Coal Barges: F 438, JH 1571; Thistles: F 447, JH 1550; Two Thistles: F 447a, JH 1551; Three Sunflowers in a Vase: F 453, JH 1559; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers: F 459, JH 1560; Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barge: F 1462, JH 1556 |
| 527 (unsent)
c. 27 August 1888 | Tasset, Gérôme, Manet, Hotel Drouot, Jeannin | What a pity painting costs so much!
And in the end it is to be feared that as soon as the new painting is appreciated, the painters will go soft. | Still Life with Grapes, Pears and Lemons: F 383, JH 1339; Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers: F 459, JH 1560 |
| 528
c. 27 August 1888 | Manet, Hotel Drouot, Jeannin, Seurat's "Grande Jatte", Signac, Anquetin, Bouvard, Pecuchet, "à Veau l'eau", Au Bonheur des Dames, Bel Ami, McKnight, Borinage, Gauguin | Painting as it is now promises to become more subtle – more like music and less like sculpture – and above all it promises colour. If only it keeps this promise. | Still Life with Grapes, Pears and Lemons: F 383, JH 1339; Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 444, JH 1563; Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667 |
| 529
c. 29 August 1888 | Russell, the Luxembourg | Sometimes I feel too feeble to fight against existing circumstances, and I should have to be cleverer and richer and younger to win.
Fortunately for me, I do not hanker after victory any more, and all that I seek in painting is a way to make life bearable. | Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 444, JH 1563; Pair of Shoes, A: F 461, JH 1569 |
| 530
1 September 1888 | Gauguin, Bing, Balzac, Daumier, Lemud, Daudet's L'Immortel, Gustave Aimard, Tartarin | Often now I hesitate before planning a picture because of what the colours would cost us. | --- |
| 531
3 September 1888 | the "vingtistes", Dante, Delacroix, "Bark of Christ", L'Immortel by Daudet, Védrine, Tartarin, Candide, Ary Scheffer, McKnight, Daumier, de Groux, the "Benedicité", Brussels Museum, Reid | To express hope by some star, the eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. | Portrait of the Art Dealer Alexander Reid: F 343, JH 1250; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Seascape at Saintes-Maries: F 417, JH 1453; Sunny Lawn in a Public Park: F 428, JH 1499; La Mousmé, Sitting: F 431, JH 1519; Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 444, JH 1563; Portrait of Eugene Boch: F 462, JH 1574; Fishing Boats at Sea: F 1430b, JH 1541 |
| 532
3 September 1888 | Bock, Tasset, Gauguin, Bernard, Bordighera, de Goncourt | How I'd like to settle down and have a home! | Portrait of Eugene Boch: F 462, JH 1574 |
| 533
8 September 1888 | Gauguin, Bernard, Bing, Pissarro, Mantz, Hokusai, Tasset, Milliet | I often think the night is more alive and more richly coloured than the day. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; La Mousmé, Sitting: F 431, JH 1519; Portrait of Patience Escalier: F 444, JH 1563; Portrait of Eugene Boch: F 462, JH 1574; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Night Cafe in Arles, The: F 1463, JH 1576 |
|
534
9 September 1888 | Postman Roulin, Gauguin, Daumier, Delacroix, Tersteeg, Sisley, Tanguy | In my picture of the "Night Café" I have tried to express the idea that the café is a please where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. So I have tried to express, as it were, the powers of darkness in a low public house, by soft Louis XV green and malachite, contrasting with yellow-green and harsh blue-greens, and all this in an atmosphere like a devil's furnace, of pale sulphur. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Night Cafe in Arles, The: F 1463, JH 1576 |
| 535
c. 12 September 1888 | Gauguin, Durand Ruel, Monet, Laval, Tasset, Bernard, Dostoievsky | But if Gauguin came and if it was fairly well known that we were staying here and helping artists live and work, I still do not see at all why the South should not become another native land to you as well as to me. | Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Rocks with Oak Tree: F 466, JH 1489; Old Mill, The: F 550, JH 1577 |
| 536
c. 11 September 1888 | Gauguin, Frans Hals, Rembrandt | Full Text | --- |
| 537
c. 16 September 1888 | Figaro, Auteuil | The problem of painting night scenes and effects on the spot and actually by night interests me enormously. This week I have done absolutely nothing but paint and sleep and have my meals. | Sunny Lawn in a Public Park: F 428, JH 1499; Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, The: F 467, JH 1580; Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 476, JH 1581 |
| 538
c. 17 September 1888 | Maurin, Bosboom, Millet, Daumier, Zola, Delacroix, Africa, Bernard, Gauguin, Laval, Goupil, Milliet | If what one is doing looks out upon the infinite, and if one sees that one's work has its raison d'être and continuance in the future, then one works with more serenity.
You are kind to painters, and I tell you, the more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. | Lane in the Public Garden at Arles, A: F 470, JH 1582 |
| 538a
c. 17 September 1888 | Gauguin, Bernard, Tanguy, Segatori | If living together should be to his advantage, nothing would prevent your agreeing to buy something from [Gauguin] from time to time, if it is possible. But no arrangement of any sort with him, for he is too fickle. | Lane in the Public Garden at Arles, A: F 470, JH 1582 |
| 539
c. 17 September 1888 | Van der Meer of Delft, Bock, Mourier, Manet, Boccaccio, Bernard, Gauguin, Dante, Petrarch, Giotto, Botticelli, Greece, Tartarin, Daumier, Venus, Arles, Lesbos, Monet, Antibes, Revue Indépendante, Milliet, Seurat, Delacroix, Monticelli, Wagner, Tanguy | I always think that poetry is more terrible than painting, though painting is a dirtier and a much more worrying job. | Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges: F 449, JH 1558; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Portrait of Eugene Boch: F 462, JH 1574; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, The: F 467, JH 1580; Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Lane in the Public Garden at Arles, A: F 470, JH 1582; Park at Arles with the Entrance Seen through the Trees, The: F 471, JH 1613; Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 476, JH 1581; Old Mill, The: F 550, JH 1577 |
| 540
c. 22 September 1888 | Milliet, Russell, Bing's Japon, Madame Chrysanthéme, Germinie Lacerteux, Maurin, Tanguy | For the second time I have scraped off a study of Christ with the angel in the Garden of Olives.
After all, we don't really know anything about our own personal future, but we nevertheless feel that impressionism will last. | Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 476, JH 1581 |
| 541
c. 27 September 1888 | Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Milliet, Seurat, Signac, Gauguin, Guillaumin, Monticelli, Laval, Vignon | I have a lover's insight or a lover's blindness for work just now.
Because these colours about me are all new to me, and give me an extraordinary exaltation. | Sunny Lawn in a Public Park: F 428, JH 1499; Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586; Bush in the Park at Arles: The Poet's Garden II: F 1465, JH 1583 |
| 541a
c. 26 September 1888 | Milliet, Ziem, L'abbé Constantin by Georges Ohnet, Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant, Tanguy, Delacroix | As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colours enough to paint the beautiful things I see. | Portrait of Milliet, Second Lieutenant of the Zouaves: F 473, JH 1588; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586 |
| 542
24 September 1888 | Hokusai, Daumier, Delacroix, Géricault, Millet, Lerat, Durand-Ruel, Wagner, Bismark, Jacquemart, Meissonier, Tolstoy, George Eliot, Bing, Rubens, Veronese, Levy, Jordaens, Monticelli, Velásquez, Gauguin, Madame de Lareby Laroquette | But what I am sure of is that by staying here I shall make some progress. And in order to do a picture which is really of the South, a little skill is not enough. It is observing things for a long time that gives you greater maturity and a deeper understanding. | --- |
| 543
28 September 1888 | Zola (L'Assommoir), Flaubert (Bouvard et Pécuchet), Gauguin, Bernard, Maurin, Tolstoi (My Religion) | That does not prevent me from having a terrible need of-—shall I say the word?-—of religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars . . . . | Vincent's House in Arles (The Yellow House): F 464, JH 1589; Starry Night over the Rhone: F 474, JH 1592; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586; Vincent's House in Arles (The Yellow House): F 1413, JH 1591; Vincent's House in Arles (The Yellow House): F 1453, JH 1590; Starry Night, The: F 1515, JH 1593 |
| 544
3 October 1888 | Gauguin, Laval, Monet, Bernard, Thomas, Corot, Daumier, Tanguy, Goupil | After continued efforts on your part and mine, now at last something is beginning to show on the horizon: Hope. | Green Vineyard, The: F 475, JH 1595 |
| 545
7 October 1888 | Gauguin, Bernard, Manet, Millet, Diaz, Freret | Yesterday I painted a sunset. | Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Starry Night over the Rhone: F 474, JH 1592; Green Vineyard, The: F 475, JH 1595; Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 476, JH 1581; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586 |
| 546
8 October 1888 | Tasset, Bague, Corot, Mauve, Mesdag, Maris, Reid, Monticelli, Gauguin, Méryon, Mother | These four days I have lived mainly on 23 cups of coffee, with bread which I still have to pay for. | White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Starry Night over the Rhone: F 474, JH 1592; Green Vineyard, The: F 475, JH 1595; Portrait of the Artist's Mother: F 477, JH 1600; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586 |
| 547
8 October 1888 | Gauguin, Bague, Tripp, Mauve, Tasset | The work holds me in its grip, and I am sure I shall not lose by it if I can go on like this, the big canvases are all good. But they are exhausting too. | Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Starry Night over the Rhone: F 474, JH 1592; Green Vineyard, The: F 475, JH 1595; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586 |
| 548
9 October 1888 | Bague, Mauve, Mesdag, Bernard | I am working on a portrait of Mother, because the black-and-white photograph annoys me so. | White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Vincent's House in Arles (The Yellow House): F 464, JH 1589; Portrait of the Artist's Mother: F 477, JH 1600; Brothel, The: F 478, JH 1599; Orchard in Blossom (probably Plum Trees): F 511, JH 1386; Vincent's House in Arles (The Yellow House): F 1413, JH 1591 |
| 549
10 October 1888 | Gauguin, Brittany, Pangloss, Bernard, Laval | Truly, it does you good to come home, and it gives you new ideas for work. | Entrance to the Public Park in Arles: F 566, JH 1585 |
| 550
10 October 1888 | Thomas, Les Frères Zemganno, the de Goncourt brothers, Bernard, Marseilles, Cannebière, Monticelli, Garibaldi | But have I set my heart on my work being a success? A thousand times no. | --- |
| 551
c. 22 October 1888 | Seurat, "Grande Jatte", Les Frères Zemganno, the de Goncourt brothers | First I must try to get to know Gauguin better. When we have him, we can't lose anyhow. | Public Park at Arles, The: F 472, JH 1598 |
| 552
13 October 1888 | Tartarin, Monticelli, Monet, Bosboom | Full Text | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Vincent's House in Arles (The Yellow House): F 464, JH 1589; Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Lane in the Public Garden at Arles, A: F 470, JH 1582; Starry Night over the Rhone: F 474, JH 1592; Green Vineyard, The: F 475, JH 1595; Tarascon Diligence: F 478a, JH 1605; Public Garden with Couple and Blue Fir Tree: The Poet's Garden III: F 479, JH 1601; Railway Bridge over Avenue Montmajour, Arles, The: F 480, JH 1603; Trinquetaille Bridge, The: F 481, JH 1604; Entrance to the Public Park in Arles: F 566, JH 1585; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586 |
| 553
14 October 1888 | Bernard, Moret, Laval, Gauguin, Seurat, Félibres, Clovis Hugues, Mistral, Monticelli | Full Text | --- |
| 554
16 October 1888 | Japanese prints | I had a new idea in my head and here is the sketch of it . . . it's just simply my bedroom . . . The broad lines of the furniture again must express inviolable rest . . . This by way or revenge for the enforced rest I was obliged to take. | Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Tarascon Diligence: F 478a, JH 1605; Vincent's Bedroom in Arles: F 482, JH 1608 |
| 555
17 October 1888 | Pissarro, Breitner, Rappard, Tersteeg, Bing, Russell, Seurat, Africa, Sicily, Richepin's Césarine, La Glu, Guy de Maupassant, Monsieur Parent, Pierre et Jean, Eugénie Grandet by Balzac | . . . I could not even do a stroke of work without you . . . . | Still Life with French Novels and a Rose: F 359, JH 1332; Vincent's Bedroom in Arles: F 482, JH 1608 |
| 556
c. 21 October 1888 | Hugo van der Goes, Emile Wauter, Delaroche, Delort, Delacroix, Meissonier, Thomas, Tartarin | Yet even then I do not think that my madness could take the form of persecution mania, since when in a state of excitement my feelings lead me rather to the contemplation of eternity, and eternal life.
It makes me sick to have to ask you for money again, but I can't help it, and even so I am broke again. However, I think that someday the work I do by spending a little more will seem a better bargain to us than the earlier stuff. | Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV, The: F 485, JH 1615 |
| 557
24 October 1888 | Gauguin |
I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell.
I believe that the time will come when I too shall sell, but I am so far behind with you, and while I go on spending, I bring nothing in. Sometimes the thought of it saddens me. | --- |
| 558
28 October 1888 | Gauguin | Besides, if what I am doing should be good, then we shall lose nothing in the money line, for it will mature quietly, like wine in the cellar. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Vincent's Bedroom in Arles: F 482, JH 1608; Sower, The: F 494, JH 1617 |
| 558a
c. 25 November 1888 | Gauguin, De Haan, Rembrandt, Silvestre, Delacroix, Grammaire des arts du dessin by Ch. Blanc, Bernard, Isaäcson, Monticelli | Here the weather is cold, notwithstanding which one sees very fine things. For instance yesterday evening an extraordinarily beautiful sunset of a mysterious, sickly citron colour – Prussian blue cypresses against trees with dead leaves in all sorts of broken tones without any speckling with bright greens. | Sower, The: F 450, JH 1627 |
| 558b
28 October 1888 | Gauguin, Bernard, Milliet, Daumier | Now it is most unlikely that I shall leave the shore and put to sea, and the little yellow house here in Arles will remain a way station between Africa, the Tropics, and the people of the North. | Sower, The: F 494, JH 1617; Trunk of an Old Yew Tree: F 573, JH 1659 |
| 559
c. 6 November 1888 | Gauguin, de Haan, Brittany, Arlésienne, Martinique, Isaäcson, Java | But if only you had been with us on Sunday, when we saw a red vineyard, all red like red wine. In the distance it turned to yellow, and then a green sky with the sun, the earth after the rain violet, sparkling yellow here and there where it caught the reflection of the setting sun. | Les Alyscamps: Falling Autumn Leaves: F 486, JH 1620; Les Alyscamps: F 487, JH 1621; L'Arlesienne: Madame Ginoux with Gloves and Umbrella: F 489, JH 1625; Red Vineyard, The: F 495, JH 1626 |
| 560
c. 4 December 1888 | Nuenen, Bernard, Chatrian, Mme. Thérèse, L'Ami Fritz, Histoire d'un sous-maître, Gauguin, "Vingtistes" | But I have made portraits of a whole family . . . .
If we can stand the siege, victory will come to us one day, in spite of our not being among the people who are talked about. | Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 433, JH 1524; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 434, JH 1647; Baby Marcelle Roulin, The: F 441a, JH 1640; Sower, The: F 450, JH 1627; Portrait of Armand Roulin: F 492, JH 1642; Portrait of Armand Roulin: F 493, JH 1643; Sower, The: F 494, JH 1617; Memory of the Garden at Etten: F 496, JH 1630; Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin: F 503, JH 1646; Portrait of Camille Roulin: F 537, JH 1644; Portrait of Camille Roulin: F 538, JH 1645 |
| 561
c. 12 November 1888 | M. C. Dujardin, Revue Indépendante, Tanguy, Thomas, Martin, Monticelli, Millet, Madame Chrysanthème, Gauguin, Bernard | Full Text | Brothel, The: F 478, JH 1599; Red Vineyard, The: F 495, JH 1626 |
| 562
c. 16 November 1888 | Jet Mauve, Laval, Bernard, Luce, Gauguin, Lecture Française, Tasset, Haan, Isaäcson | [Gauguin] He is a very great artist and a very excellent friend. | Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379; Memory of the Garden at Etten: F 496, JH 1630; Novel Reader, The: F 497, JH 1632 |
| 563
c. 23 November 1888 | Gauguin, Goupil, Boussod, Bock, Guillaumin, Jet Mauve, Monet | As far as I am concerned, I shall either never darken the Goupil's door again, which is probable, or else I shall go in boldly, which is hardly likely. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Vincent's Chair with His Pipe: F 498, JH 1635; Paul Gauguin's Armchair: F 499, JH 1636 |
| 564
Second half December, 1888 | Brias, Delacroix, Ricard, Courbet, Cabanel, Couture, Verdier, Tasset, Giotto, Paul Potter, Botticelli, Rousseau, Rembrandt, Fromentin, de Haan, Isaäcson, Degas, Montpellier Museum | Gauguin and I talked a lot about Delacroix, Rembrandt, etc. Our arguments are terribly electric, we come out of them sometimes with our heads as exhausted as an electric battery after it has run down. | --- |
| 565
23 December 1888 | --- | I think myself that Gauguin was a little out of sorts with the good town of Arles, the little yellow house where we work, and especially with me. | --- |
| 566
4 January 1889 | Gauguin, Roulin, André Bonger, Mother, Schuffenecker | My dear lad, I am so terribly distressed at your journey. I should have wished you had been spared that, for after all no harm came to me, and there was no reason why you should put yourself to that trouble. | --- |
| 567
2 January 1889 | Rey, Gauguin, Bonger | Now, let's talk about our friend Gauguin, have I terrified him? | --- |
| 568
7 January 1889 | Rey, Brias, Delacroix, Montpellier Musée, Gauguin, Voltaire, Bonger, De Haan, Isaäcson, Mother, Wil, Jet Mauve | I do so regret that you had all that trouble for such a trifle. Forgive me, who am after all probably the primary cause of it all. | Portrait of Doctor Felix Rey: F 500, JH 1659 |
| 569
7 January 1889 | Mother, Wil, Roulin, Rey, Delacroix, Puvis de Chavannes, Rembrandt, "Anatomy Lesson.", François Buffa & Sons, Bonger | I assure you that some days at the hospital were very interesting, and perhaps it is from the sick that one learns how to live. | Portrait of Doctor Felix Rey: F 500, JH 1659 |
| 570
9 January 1889 | Gauguin, Rey, Brias, Monticelli, Silvestre, Degas, Rivet, Breda, Haan, Isaäcson, Roulin | They have just told me that during my absence the owner of my house here made an arrangement with a fellow who has a tobacco shop to turn me out and give the tobacconist the house . . . . This has rather upset me, for I am not much disposed to have myself turned out of this house practically in disgrace . . . . | Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 476, JH 1581 |
| 571
17 January 1889 | Roulin, Rey, Gauguin, Rivet, Rembrandt, De Haan, Isaäcson, Pre-Raphaelites, Tarascon, Tartarin, Bompard, Numa Roumestan, Daudet, Bonaparte, Egypt, Denmark, Martinique, Laval | . . . my pictures are valueless, it is true they cost me an extraordinary amount, perhaps even in blood and brains at times. | Two Cut Sunflowers: F 375, JH 1329; Two Cut Sunflowers: F 376, JH 1331; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 476, JH 1581; Tarascon Diligence: F 478a, JH 1605; Vincent's Chair with His Pipe: F 498, JH 1635; Paul Gauguin's Armchair: F 499, JH 1636; Portrait of Doctor Felix Rey: F 500, JH 1659; Self-Portrait: F 501, JH 1634; Self-Portrait: F 525, JH 1665; Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe: F 529, JH 1658; Still Life: Drawing Board, Pipe, Onions and Sealing-Wax: F 604, JH 1656 |
| 572
19 January 1889 | Rey, André Bonger, Jo Bonger, Guillaumin, Bernard, Algiers, Milliet, Roulin, Socrates, Michelet, Chatrian, Gauguin, Schuffenecker | What wouldn't I have given to be able to spend a day here with you and show you the work in progress, and the house, etc., etc. | --- |
| 573
22 or 23 January 1889 | Monticelli, Roulin, Gauguin, Mother, Jeannin, Quost, Mme. Ginoux | You know that the peony is Jeannin's, the hollyhock belongs to Quost, but the sunflower is somewhat my own. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Vincent's Bedroom in Arles: F 482, JH 1608; L'Arlesienne: Madame Ginoux with Gloves and Umbrella: F 489, JH 1625; Still Life with Oranges, Lemons and Blue Gloves: F 502, JH 1664; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 508, JH 1671 |
| 574
28 January 1889 | Gauguin, Monticelli, Brias, Faure, Pangloss, Folies Arlésiennes, "Félibres", St. Vitus' dance, Delacroix, Berlioz, Wagner | Old Gauguin and I understand each other basically, and if we are a bit mad, what of it? | White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 454, JH 1562; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 455, JH 1668; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 506, JH 1670; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 508, JH 1671 |
| 575
30 January 1889 | Roulin, Gauguin, Rochefort, Boulanger, Cabanel, Bouguereau, De Haan, Isaäcson | Everyone here is kind to me, the neighbours, etc., kind and attentive as if I were at home. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 454, JH 1562; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 455, JH 1668; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 505, JH 1669; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 506, JH 1670; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 508, JH 1671 |
| 576
3 February 1889 | Mme. Roulin, La Mireille, Mistral, Rey, Rue Lepic, Rue Rodier, Ricord, Raspail | I always tell the people here who ask after my health that I shall begin by dying in their midst, and that then my malady will be dead. | White Orchard, The: F 403, JH 1378; Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background: F 412, JH 1440; Sower, The: F 422, JH 1470; La Mousmé, Sitting: F 431, JH 1519; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 454, JH 1562; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 455, JH 1668; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 505, JH 1669; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 506, JH 1670; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 508, JH 1671 |
| 577
c. 17 February 1889 | Rey, Aix, Arabia, Africa, De Haan, Isaäcson, Antibes, Nice, Mentone,, Mother | Now mind, you must not think too much about me, nor fret yourself. It will probably have to take its course, and we cannot change much in our fate by taking precautions. | --- |
| 578
c. 22 February 1889 | Mme. Roulin, Mourier, Gauguin, Koning, Bernard, Salles, Rivet | Well, well, after all there are so many painters who are cracked in one way or another that little by little I shall be reconciled to it. | La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 505, JH 1669; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 506, JH 1670; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 507, JH 1672; La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 508, JH 1671 |
| 579
19 March 1889 | Tardieu, Signac, Rey, Bonger | Anyhow, here I am, shut up in a cell all the livelong day, under lock and key and with keepers, without my guilt being proved or even open to proof.
I will not deny that I would rather have died than have caused and suffered such trouble. | --- |
| 580
c. 22 March 1889 | Salles, Signac, Roulin | As far as I can judge, I am not properly speaking a madman. You will see that the canvases I have done in the intervals are steady and not inferior to the others. I miss the work more than it tires me. | --- |
| 581
24 March 1889 | Signac, Jules Dupré, Ceux de Ia Glèbe, Camille Lemonnier, Rey, Rochefort, Hugo, Quinet, Degas | Am I to suffer imprisonment or the madhouse? | Still Life with Bloaters: F 203, JH 1123; Still Life with Bloaters: F 283, JH 1120; Still Life: Bloaters on a Piece of Yellow Paper: F 510, JH 1661 |
| 582
29 March 1889 | Salles, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Beecher Stowe, Dickens, Germinie Lacerteux, Koning, Mauve, Lecomte, Faubert's Salammbô, Thomas | These last three months do seem so strange to me. Sometimes moods of indescribable mental anguish, sometimes moments when the veil of time and the fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant. | La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin): F 504, JH 1655 |
| 583
c. 5 April 1889 | Tasset, Le Fifre, Forain, Roulin, Salles, Rey, Figaro, Monet, Dickens' "Christmas Books", Carlyle | And now, my dear lad, I do believe I shall soon not be ill enough to have to stay shut up. Otherwise I am beginning to get used to it, and if I had to stay for good in an asylum, I should make up my mind to it and I think I could find subjects for painting there as well.
I tell you I have no right to complain of anything whatever about Arles, when I think of some things I have seen there which I shall never be able to forget. | La Crau with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 514, JH 1681 |
| 584
c. 13 April 1889 | Tasset, Rey, Signac | Hoping again that everything to do with your marriage has gone off to your liking, and wishing you and your wife much happiness from the bottom of my heart. | La Crau with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 514, JH 1681; View of Arles with Trees in Blossom: F 515, JH 1683 |
| 585
c. 21 April 1889 | Salles, Rey | What comforts me a little is that I am beginning to consider madness as a disease like any other and accept the thing as such, whereas during the crises themselves I thought that everything I imagined was real.
I shake your hand in thought. I do not know if I shall write very, very often because not all my days are clear enough for me to write fairly logically, All your kindness to me seemed greater than ever to me today. I can't put the way I feel it in words, but I assure you that this kindness has been pure gold, and if you do not see any results from it, my dear brother, don't fret about it; your own goodness abides. | --- |
| 586
24 April 1889 | Salles, Rey | I assure you that I am much calmer now that I can tell myself that you have a companion for good. Above all, do not imagine that I am unhappy. | --- |
| 587
c. 25-28 April 1889 | Salles, Rey, Renan, Delacroix, Wil | Oh, my dear Theo, if you saw the olives just now.... The leaves, old silver and silver turning to green against the blue. And the orange-coloured ploughed earth. It is something quite different from your idea of it in the North, the tender beauty, the distinction! | --- |
| 588
30 April 1889 | Delacroix, Monticelli, Corot, Millet, Pangloss, Bouvard, Pécuchet, Bruyas, Puvis de Chavannes, Daniel, Courbet, Cabanel, Victor Giraud, Richepin, Salles, Bernard, Gauguin | If I were without your friendship, they would drive me remorselessly to suicide, and coward that I am, I should end by committing it. | Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 454, JH 1562; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 455, JH 1668; Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Portrait of Eugene Boch: F 462, JH 1574; Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine in Arles, The: F 463, JH 1575; Green Vineyard, The: F 475, JH 1595; Public Garden with Couple and Blue Fir Tree: The Poet's Garden III: F 479, JH 1601; Vincent's Bedroom in Arles: F 482, JH 1608; Les Alyscamps: Falling Autumn Leaves: F 486, JH 1620; Les Alyscamps: F 487, JH 1621; Red Vineyard, The: F 495, JH 1626; Trunk of an Old Yew Tree: F 573, JH 1618; Ploughed Field: F 574, JH 1586 |
| 589
2 May 1889 | Gauguin, Lemonnier, Salles, Monet | For bear in mind, to go on spending money on this painting when things might come to such a pitch that you would be short of money for your own housekeeping would be atrocious, and you know well that the chances of success are abominable. | Public Park with Weeping Willow: The Poet's Garden I: F 468, JH 1578; Red Chestnuts in the Public Park at Arles: F 517, JH 1689 |
| 590
3 May 1889 | Salles, Puvis, Delacroix, Pangloss, Tanguy, Millet, Mathey, Besnard, Zorn, Carolus Duran, Monet, Breton, Israëls, Whistler, Leys, Daubigny, Quost, Jeannin, Monorobu, Meissonier, Balzac, Gauguin, Signac | I sometimes regret I did not simply stick to the Dutch palette with its grey tones, and brush away at landscapes of Montmartre without any fuss. | Park at Arles, The: F 1468, JH 1498 |
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