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From Vincent to Theo

Drenthe: 1883


"Journeying through these parts for hour after hour, one feels that there really is nothing but that infinite earth, that mould of corn or heather, that infinite sky."

Vincent van Gogh
Letter 340
c. 16 November 1883


Letter

Keywords

Excerpt / Full Text

Link to Painting(s) Mentioned in Letter

323

11 and 12 September 1883

--- Of course the woman and her children were with me to the last, and when I left, the parting was not very easy.

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324

c. 15 September 1883

Dupré, Mesdag, Neuhuys, Millet, Th. Rousseau How much sadness there is in life. Still, it won't do to become depressed, one should turn to other things, and the right thing is work, but there are times when one can only find peace of mind in the realization: I too, shall not be spared by unhappiness.

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325

c. 17 September 1883

Dupré, Millet, C.M., Liebermann, Henkes, Herkomer, Jules Breton, De Groux Then the heath is sometimes far from attractive at that hot midday hour – it is aggravating, monotonous, and wearying like the desert, as inhospitable and hostile, so to speak. Painting it in that blazing light and rendering the planes vanishing into infinity makes one dizzy.

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326

c. 22 September 1883

Rappard, C.M., Proudhon, Gavarni, Lady Macbeth, Delacroix, Corot, Béranger, Hugo, Father At first I had some bad luck with my models on the heath; they laughed at me, and made fun of me . . . .

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327

Hoogeveen
24 September 1883

Wisselingh I have seen superb figures, but I repeat, a scenery that has so much nobility, so much dignity and gravity, must be treated after deep reflection and with patience and steady work.

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328

c. 26 September 1883

Rappard What can I do? Will it get better or worse in time? I do not know, but I cannot shake off a feeling of deep melancholy.

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329

c. 27 September 1883

Borinage, Meissonier Full Text ---
330

New Amsterdam
c. 3 October 1883

Michel, Th. Rousseau, Van Goyen, Ph. de Koninck, Daubigny, Boetzel Albums, Liebermann Full Text Farmhouses: F 17, JH 395
331

New Amsterdam
6-7 October 1883

Van Goyen, Ruysdael, Jules Dupré I think I have found my little kingdom, you know.
I must repeat once more that I hope you feel perfectly sure, in hours of melancholy, that you are not without a friend.

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Two Peasant Women in the Peat Field: F 19, JH 409; Landscape with Bog-Oak Trunks: F 1095, JH 406
332

12 October 1883

Thijs Maris, Boughton, Rappard, Liebermann, Michel, Jules Dupré, Carlyle, Millet My dear boy, you know how things are with me, but if you are feeling miserable about one thing and another, don't feel alone. It is too much to bear alone, and in part, at least, I can sympathize with you.

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333

13 October 1883

Goupil, Obach, Tersteeg, Millet You are preoccupied with other things, exactly. All at once you feel, damn it, am I dreaming? I am on the wrong road – where is my studio, where is my brush?
Though I wish it were not so, I am extremely sensitive about what is said of my work, about what impression I make personally. When I meet with distrust, when I am alone, I feel a certain void which cripples my initiative.

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Plowman and Three Women: F 1096r, JH 411
335

c. 22 October 1883

Uncle Vincent, Wisselingh, Millet, Corot, C.M. . . . it seems to me that the whole art business is rotten – to tell you the truth, I doubt if the present enormous prices, even for masterpieces, will last.

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Peasant Burning Weeds: F 20, JH 417; Peat Boat with Two Figures: F 21, JH 415; Farmhouse at Night: F 1097, JH 418
336

28 October 1883

Barbizon, Zola, Van Eyck, Rappard, Gustave Dore, Millet, Israëls, Breton, Boughton, Herkomer As for me, if I could find some people whom I could talk to about art, who felt for it and wanted to feel for it – I should gain an enormous advantage in my work – I should feel more myself, be more myself.

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337

c. 29 October-2 November 1883

--- Well, my dear fellow, to me painting is too logical, too reasonable, too straightforward to allow me personally ever to change my course.

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338

19 November 1883

Cromwell, Mayflower, Pilgrims, Jacob and Esau, Puritans, Carlyle It might well be that you are fighting hard and futilely against your character, frustrating your own liberation just because you doubt whether you can do it.

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339

c. 29 October-15 November 1883

Van Eyck, Adriaan & Isaäc Ostade, Jules and Émile Breton, Corot, Michel, Wisselingh, Goupil I cannot repeat to you often enough, boy, that when one is thirty, one is just beginning. Look at the biographies of artists, even many who had painted from their earliest years changed only then, found their own personality only then.

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Farmhouse with Peat Stacks: F 22, JH 421
339a

c. 29 October-2 November 1883

Tersteeg, Father, Dupré, Daubigny, Corot, Millet, Israëls, Herkomer, Michelet, Hugo, Zola, Balzac I feel my own incurable melancholy, caused by certain developments in the past . . . .

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339b

c. 3 November 1883

--- You and I are brothers, and what is more, friends, and if misfortune should happen to tighten these ties and knit us closer together . . . .

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340

c. 16 November 1883

Liebermann, Termeulen, Jules Bakhuyzen, Corot, Millet Journeying through these parts for hour after hour, one feels that there really is nothing but that infinite earth, that mould of corn or heather, that infinite sky.

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Shepherd with Flock near a Little Church at Zweeloo: F 877, JH 423
341

c. 17 November 1883

Uncle Vincent, Tersteeg, Wisselingh So my plan is always to risk too much rather than too little; if one is defeated by too much, well, so be it.

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342

26 November 1883

Lady Macbeth, Furnée . . . so as for me, I resign myself to fate, and act as if nothing were the matter.

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Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam: F 1098, JH 425
343

1 December 1883

Serret, Rappard Indeed, this may be a small misery, but it is a sorrow after all: A feeling of being an outcast – particularly strange and unpleasant – though the country may be ever so stimulating and beautiful.

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