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"But you know, don't you, that I consider you to have saved my life."
Vincent van Gogh |
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Letter |
Keywords |
Excerpt / Full Text |
Link to Painting(s) Mentioned in Letter |
| 344
c. 5 December 1883 | Moniteur Universel, Millet, Corot, Rembrandt, Israëls, Mesdag, Blommers, Maris, Uncle Vincent, Abel, Cain | I mean, there is no reason to lose one's serenity if one should realize that one might have to lead a life of poverty, even if one possesses all the qualities, the knowledge, the capacities, which make other people rich. I am not indifferent to money, but I do not understand the wolves. | --- |
| 345
c. 6-7 December 1883 | Father, Rappard | . . . there is a certain hardness in Father, like iron, an icy coldness . . . . | --- |
| 345a
c. 7-8 December 1883 | Father, Mother, Van Rappard | . . . but I ask you point-blank how we stand--are you a "Van Gogh" too? I have always looked upon you as "Theo". | --- |
| 346
17 December 1883 | Rappard, Mauve | They feel the same dread of taking me in the house as they would about taking in a big, rough dog. He would run into the room with wet paws--and he is so rough. He will be in everybody's way. And he barks so loud. In short, he is a foul beast.
But you know, don't you, that I consider you to have saved my life. | --- |
| 347
c. 18 December 1883 | Father, Corot, Rappard, Millet, Corot, Daubigny, Breton, Herkomer, Boughton, Jules Dupré, Israëls, Tersteeg, Delaroche, Muller, Dubuffe, Michelet | . . . Father's gray hairs make it evident to me that the time left to us for reconciliation is perhaps, in truth, not very long. I do not much care for deathbed reconciliations, I prefer to see them during life. | --- |
| 348
c. 21 December 1883 | Rappard, Father, Mauve, Hugo | Full Text | --- |
| 349
The Hague | Rappard, Sien | I have seen the woman again, a thing I had greatly longed for. | --- |
| 350
c. 25-28 December 1883 | Sien | As to my opinion how far one may go in a case of helping a poor, forsaken, sick creature, I can only repeat what I told you already on a former occasion: infinitely. | --- |
| 350a
Late December 1883 | Sien, "The Prisoner" by Gérôme | I tell you without reserve that you have this much in common with Father, who often acts in the same way, that you are cruel in your worldly wisdom. | --- |
| 351
c. 2 January 1884 | Corot, Français, Father | I for my part often prefer to be with people who do not even know the world, for instance the peasants, the weavers, etc., rather than being with those of the more civilized world. | Wood Auction, A: F 1113, JH 438; Weaver Facing Left: F 1114, JH 444; Church in Gerwen with Four Figures: F 1238, JH 435 |
| 352
17 January 1884 | --- | Something has happened to Mother. | --- |
| 353
18 and 19 January 1884 | --- | Theo, think it over well, if you cannot find some way or other for me to earn something. | --- |
| 354
c. 20-24 January 1884 | --- | . . . when I am not with Mother, I am near by at the weavers', where I am working on two painted studies. | --- |
| 355
c. 24 January 1884 | Manet, Zola, Millet | --- | Weaver Facing Right (Half-Figure): F 26, JH 450; Church in Nuenen, with One Figure: F 1117, JH 446; Weaver Facing Right, Interior with One Window and High Chair: F 1118, JH 452; Weaver Facing Right, Interior with One Window and High Chair: F 1119, JH 449; Weaver Facing Left: F 1120, JH 443 |
| 355a
Early January 1884 | --- | If it gives you any satisfaction to know that what you call "my plans for the future" have practically fallen through, thrive on the thought. | --- |
| 355b
Early February 1884 | Monnier | . . . in the long run I suppose I shall succeed. | --- |
| 356
13 February 1884 | --- | Full Text | --- |
| 357
c. 18-23 February 1884 | Poems by François Coppeé, Watteau, Rembrandt's "Jewish Bride", Thoré, Théophile Gautier | Full Text | Weaver Facing Right, Interior with One Window and High Chair: F 1118, JH 452; Weaver Facing Right: F 1121, JH 453; Weaver Facing Right (Half-Figure): F 1122, JH 454; Weaver Facing Left: F 1123, JH 455 |
| 358
c. 1 March 1884 | Michel, Father, C.M., Mauve | There needs to be more gusto in my life if I am to get more brio into my brush – exercising patience will not get me a hair's breadth further. | Farmhouse with Peat Stacks: F 22, JH 421; Old Tower at Nuenen with a Ploughman, The: F 34, JH 459; Farmhouse at Night: F 1097, JH 418; Weaver Facing Right, Interior with One Window and High Chair: F 1118, JH 452; Weaver Facing Right: F 1121, JH 453; Weaver Facing Right (Half-Figure): F 1122, JH 454; Weaver Facing Left: F 1123, JH 455 |
| 359
c. 9 March 1884 | Uncle Vincent | Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy. | --- |
| 360
c. 1 February 1884 | Rappard | Now I want to make you a proposal for the future. Let me send you my work, and keep what you like for yourself, but I insist on considering the money I receive from you after March as money I have earned. | --- |
| 361
c. 11 March 1884 | --- | Last year, the year '83, was a hard, sad year for me, and the end especially was bitterly, bitterly sad. | --- |
| 362
c. 21 March 1884 | Lhermitte, Millet, Buhot, Daumier, Julien Brochard, Paul Delaroche, Heyerdahl | . . . in the meantime my life would not be too lonesome and miserable, my position not too false, but that I could accept the present with a sense of freedom. But how is it at present? You do absolutely nothing to procure me some distraction, which I sometimes need so badly, by meeting people, or seeing things. | --- |
| 363
c. 26 March 1884 | Braat, Zola, Rappard | Will you see to it that my work is brought under the eyes of those people who, if not now then later on, must become its buyers? | --- |
| 363a
Early April 1884 | Rappard, C.M., Millet, Lhermitte, Rembrandt, Nicolaes Maes, Van der Meer, Sensier | Full Text | Old Tower at Nuenen with a Ploughman, The: F 34, JH 459; Parsonage Garden: F 1128, JH 466; Parsonage Garden: F 1130, JH 465; Parsonage Garden: F 1133, JH 485; Pond with a Kingfisher: F 1135, JH 468; Lane of Poplars with One Figure: F 1239, JH 464; Pollard Birches with Woman and Flock of Sheep: F 1240, JH 469 |
| 364
c. 1 April 1884 | Braat | Of course I will send you my work every month. As you say, that work will be your property then, and I perfectly agree with you that you have every right to do anything with it; even I couldn't make any objection if you should want to tear it to pieces. | Weaver Facing Left with Spinning Wheel: F 29, JH 471; Old Tower at Nuenen with a Ploughman, The: F 34, JH 459; Parsonage Garden: F 1128, JH 466; Behind the Hedges: F 1129, JH 461; Parsonage Garden: F 1130, JH 465; Parsonage Garden: F 1133, JH 485; Pond with a Kingfisher: F 1135, JH 468 |
| 365
April, 1884 | Rappard, Braat, Cor, Mother, Father | But [Rappard] 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. | --- |
| 366
April, 1884 | Rappard | 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. | Parsonage Garden: F 1128, JH 466; Parsonage Garden: F 1130, JH 465; Parsonage Garden: F 1133, JH 485 |
| 367
c. 30 April 1884 | Rembrandt, "The Night Watch", Millet | Full Text | Weaver Facing Left with Spinning Wheel: F 29, JH 471; Weaver, Seen from the Front: F 30, JH 479; Weaver, Seen from the Front: F 31, JH 477; Weaver Arranging Threads: F 32, JH 480; Weaver Arranging Threads: F 35, JH 478 |
| 368
c. 15 May 1884 | Puvis de Chavannes, Maris, Israëls, Mauve, Rappard | 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 . . . . | Weaver, Seen from the Front: F 30, JH 479; Old Tower in the Fields, The: F 40, JH 507 |
| 369
Late May 1884 | Rappard | Full Text | Weaver Standing in Front of a Loom: F 33, JH 489; Parsonage Garden: F 1128, JH 466; Parsonage Garden: F 1130, JH 465 |
| 370
Early June 1884 | Les artistes de mon temps by Ch. Blanc, Paul Chenavard, Delacroix, Paul Veronese, De Bock, Jaap Maris | As to drab colour, in my opinion, one must not judge the colours of a painting separately; a drab colour, for instance, next to a strong brownish-red, a dark blue or olive-green may express the very delicate, fresh green of a meadow or a little cornfield. | Old Man Reeling Yarn: F 1140, JH 487 |
| 371
Early June 1884 | Les Maitres d'Autrefois [The Masters of the Past] by Fromentin, Mauve, Ruysdael, Dupré, Corot, Daubigny, Regnault, Fortuny, Israëls, Cabat, De Groux, Thoré, Blanc, Beethoven | The laws of the colours are unutterably beautiful, just because they are not accidental. | Old Man Reeling Yarn: F 1138, JH 486; Old Man Reeling Yarn: F 1140, JH 487 |
| 372
Early July 1884 | Breitner | Full Text | Weaver near an Open Window: F 24, JH 500; Weaver, Interior with Three Small Windows: F 37, JH 501 |
| 373
Early August 1884 | Rappard, Vosmaer, Sapho by Daudet | I work a good deal early in the morning or in the evening, and sometimes everything is so unutterably beautiful then. | Cart with Red and White Ox: F 38, JH 504; Cart with Black Ox: F 39, JH 505; Old Tower in the Fields, The: F 40, JH 507; Old Church Tower at Nuenen, The: F 88, JH 490 |
| 374
Early August 1884 | Millais Fred. Walker, Hobbema, Constable | How I should love to walk with you in London, particularly in real London weather when the City, especially in certain old parts near the river, has aspects that are very melancholy but at the same time have a remarkably striking character . . . . | Potato Harvest with Two Figures: F 1141, JH 510; Ploughman: F 1142, JH 512; Sower: F 1143, JH 509; Oxcart in the Snow: F 1144, JH 511 |
| 375
Second half September, 1884 | Margot Begemann, Madame Bovary, Dr. Van der Loo | Margot Begemann took poison in a moment of despair . . . . | --- |
| 376
Second half September, 1884 | Begemann family, Madame Bovary | Full Text | --- |
| 377
Second half September, 1884 | Margot Begemann, Rappard, Hermans, Mouret | It is a pity that I didn't meet [Margot Begemann] before, for instance, ten years ago. Now she gives me the impression of a Cremona violin which has been spoiled by bad, bungling repairers. | Wood Gatherers in the Snow: F 43, JH 516 |
| 378
October, 1884 | Margot Begemann, Octave Mouret, Guizot, Millet, Breton, Zola, "Angélus", Daudet, Mauve | 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. | --- |
| 379
Second half September, 1884 | Delacroix's Liberty at the Barricades, De Lemud, Daumier, Napoleon, Guizot, Louis Philippe, Michelet, Quinet, Victor Hugo, Margot Begemann, Tersteeg, Mouret | Full Text | --- |
| 380
Late September, 1884 | Daumier, Lemud, Father, Breton, Guizot, Michelet, Millet, Dupré, Corot, Daubigny, Joseph Prudhomme, Monnier | I, for my part, know well enough that the future will always remain very difficult for me, and I am almost sure that in the future I shall never be what people call prosperous. | --- |
| 381
October, 1884 | Hermans, Stracké, Breitner, Cormon, Anatomy for Artists by John Marshall, Breughel | You once told me that I should always be isolated; I don't believe it, you are decidedly mistaken in my character there. | --- |
| 382
22? October 1884 | Hermans, Rappard | And as to my work, every day I become keener on it, and I get back my high spirits, as if I were twenty. | --- |
| 383
Late October, 1884 | Rappard, Lhermitte's "Le Cabaret" | Perhaps some more painters will come in this neighbourhood next year. I should be glad of it, for one must not go without seeing any other painters for too long a time. | Avenue of Poplars in Autumn: F 122, JH 522 |
| 384
c. 1 November 1884 | Mauve, Tersteeg, Rappard | This is a thing you never feel or understand. You say "go on painting," but for the rest you know nothing. | --- |
| 385
November, 1884 | Mauve, Tersteeg | My affairs can prosper, and in both our interests, I wish we could concentrate all the power at our disposal. | Water Mill at Gennep: F 125, JH 525 |
| 386
mid-November, 1884 | Anton Kerssemakers, Mauve, Tersteeg, Hermans | In the very fight I shall feel my strength grow, and I shall learn more by criticism, by ill will, even by opposition, than by resignation. | Water Mill at Gennep: F 125, JH 525 |
| 386a
c. 9 December 1884 | Mauve, Tersteeg | But personally you aren't of the slightest use to me, nor am I to you. And it is possible, and it ought to be, that we should mean more to each other personally. | --- |
| 386b
Late November 1884 | --- | . . . I believe there will be a chance of keeping the peace in the future, though it will be far from real harmony. | --- |
| 387
mid-November, 1884 | Kerssemakers, Hermans | I know that it is a hard time for you, but we must push on, and sure enough there will be a change for the better. | Water Mill at Gennep: F 1144a, JH 523 |
| 388
c. 7 December 1884 | Begemann, Father, Mother | Therefore – with steady courage and serenity and without rancour: I must plod on in order to separate in peace, and without harming anybody. | --- |
| 388a
31 January 1885 | Zundert | There are various things in the world that are great – the sea with the fishermen – the furrows and the peasants – the mines and the miners. | --- |
| 388b
Early February 1885 | L'Illustration, Renouard | . . . one does not paint in order to have an easy time of it. | --- |
| 389
mid-December 1884 | Rappard, Renouard, Daumier, Gavarnis | Full Text | --- |
| 390
15-17 December 1884 | De Groux, Conscience, Thijs Maris, Leys, Victor Hugo | It is certainly not for my pleasure that I live here at home, but for my painting . . . . | --- |
| 391
Late December 1884 | Dante, Giotto | I don't yet know what I shall do with those [peasant] heads, but I want to extract the motif from the characters themselves. | --- |
| 392
c. 20 January 1885 | --- | I've hardly ever begun a year with a gloomier aspect, in a gloomier mood, and I do not expect any future of success, but a future of strife. | --- |
| 393
c. 24 January 1885 | Paul Renouard, Rappard, Dumas, Millet, Daumier, Lepage, Michelangelo | 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. | --- |
| 394
February, 1885 | Renouard, Puvis de Chavannes, Emile Levy, Beyle, Cottin, Jules Breton, Daubigny, Harpignies, Ruysdael, Israëls, Dupré | . . . I think it just as superb as anybody else, but I am even more interested in the proportion of a figure, the division of the oval of the head, and I cannot master the rest before I have a better grip on the figure. | Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in the Snow, The: F 67, JH 604; Head of a Peasant Woman with Brownish Cap: F 154, JH 608 |
| 395
c. 1 March 1885 | Lhermitte, Whistler, Millais, Boughton, Chardin, Jacquet, Van Beers, Fantin Latour | Just now I paint not only as long as there is daylight, but even in the evening by the lamp in the cottages, when I can hardly distinguish anything on my palette . . . . | Peasant Woman Sewing: F 126a, JH 655; Peasant Woman Sweeping the Floor: F 152, JH 656; Peasant Making a Basket: F 171, JH 658; Peasant Making a Basket: F 171a, JH 657 |
| 396
mid-March 1885 | Lhermitte | Now as for me, I cannot yet show a single picture, hardly a single drawing yet. But I do make studies, and that's just why I can very well imagine that the time might come when I shall also be able to compose easily. And, moreover, it is hard to say where the study ends and the picture begins. | Peasant Woman, Seen against the Window: F 70, JH 715; Head of a Peasant Woman against a Window: F 70a, JH 716; Peasant Woman Seated before an Open Door, Peeling Potatoes: F 73, JH 717 |
| 397
c. 1 April 1885 | C. M., Mauve, Bloemendaal | Life is not long for anybody, and the problem is only to make something of it. | Head of a Peasant Woman with Red Cap: F 160, JH 722 |
| 398
c. 5 April 1885 | Mother, Anna, Delacroix | We are now in the very beginning of showing the work; I feel sure that by and by we shall find some friends for it. | Potato Eaters, The: F 78, JH 734 |
| 399
c. 11 April 1885 | Gigoux | . . . . one must work and dare if one really wants to live. | --- |
| 400
13 April 1885 | Millet, Israëls, Mauve, B. Lepage, De Groux, Mellery, Renan | . . . I repeat Millet is father Millet, that is, counsellor and mentor in everything to the younger painters. | Potato Eaters, The: F 78, JH 734; Five Persons at a Meal: F 1226, JH 736; Potato Eaters, The: F 1661, JH 737 |
| 401
c. 13-17 April 1885 | Gigoux, Portier, Henri Pille, Le Chat Noir, Delacroix, Newton | Full Text | Potato Eaters, The: F 78, JH 734; Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Potato Eaters, The: F 1661, JH 737 |
| 402
21 April 1885 | Portier, Corot, Français, Delacroix, Dou, Van Schendel, Millet, Blommers, Mauve, Maris | There is a school — I believe – of impressionists. But I know very little about it.
I hope to have some luck with that picture of the potato-eaters. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Potato Eaters, The: F 1661, JH 737 |
| 403
Late April 1885 | Portier, Lhermitte, Delacroix, Ingres, Daumier, Jules Dupré, Balzac, Gigoux, Henri Pille, Meunier, Mellery, Rappard, Allebé, Jacque | But I am getting on with [The Potato Eaters], and I think there are completely different things in it than you can ever have seen in my work. | Potato Eaters, The: F 78, JH 734; Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764 |
|
404
c. 30 April 1885 | Portier, Durand Ruel, Millet, De Groux | Yet the weaver, or rather the designer, of the pattern or the colour combination does not always find it easy to make an exact estimate of the number of threads and their direction – no more than it is easy to weave brush strokes into a harmonious whole.
The point is that I've tried to bring out the idea that these people eating potatoes by the light of their lamp have dug the earth with the self-same hands they are now putting into the dish, and it thus suggests manual labour and – a meal honestly earned. | Potato Eaters, The: F 78, JH 734; Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Potato Eaters, The: F 1661, JH 737 |
| 405
Early May 1885 | Roll, Durand Ruel, Portier, Millet, Daubigny, Corot, Israëls, Dupré, Paul Veronese, Josephson | When I went to the cottage tonight, I found the people at supper in the light of the small window instead of under the lamp – oh, it was splendid! The colour was extraordinary too . . . . | Peasant Woman, Seen against the Window: F 70, JH 715; Head of a Peasant Woman against a Window: F 70a, JH 716; Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Three Persons Sitting at the Window: F 1229v, JH 775 |
|
406
4 or 5 May 1885 | Ostade, Portier, Jules Breton, Roll, Fantin Latour, Vernier, Lhermitte, Régamey, Renouard, Lançon, Tissot, Alfred Stevens, Millet, Herkomer, the Boetzel Albums, Daubigny, Corot, Dupré, Israëls, Breton, Mauve, Fred. Walker, Pinwell, Leys, Luxembourg, Bastien Lepage, Jaap Maris, Artz, Cabat, Besnard, Uhde, Rembrandt, the [London] National Gallery | But the reason why I am sending [The Potato Eaters] with a certain confidence is that, in contrast to many other pictures, there is rusticity and a certain life in it. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764 |
| 407
6 May 1885 | --- | Full Text | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764 |
| 408
c. 11 May 1885 | Portier, Paul Mantz, Millet, Lhermitte, Roll, Rappard, Zola's Germinal, Besnard, Mouret, Bourdoncle, Mother, L'évangeliste by Daudet, Gigoux, Thijs Maris, Israëls, Mauve, Neuhuys, Delacroix, Leys, Thoré, Théophile Gautier, De Groux | And what I try to acquire is not to draw a hand but the gesture, not a mathematically correct head, but the general expression. For instance, when a digger looks up and sniffs the wind or speaks. In short, life. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Cottage at Nightfall: F 83, JH 777; Old Cemetery Tower at Nuenen, The: F 84, JH 772; Wood Auction, A: F 1113, JH 438; Auction of Crosses near the Old Tower: F 1230, JH 770 |
| 409
c. 15 May 1885 | Germinal, Portier | Last year I often got desperate about the colour, but now I work with more confidence. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Gordina de Groot, Head: F 140, JH 745; Gordina de Groot, Head: F 141, JH 783 |
| 410
c. 1 June 1885 | Portier, Serret, Germinal, Souvarine, the Louvre, the Luxembourg, Millet, Delacroix, Corot, Lhermitte | But it is a fact that one needs both nature and pictures.But it is a fact that one needs both nature and pictures. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Cottage at Nightfall: F 83, JH 777; Head of a Peasant Woman: F 86, JH 785; Gordina de Groot, Head: F 141, JH 783; Auction of Crosses near the Old Tower: F 1230, JH 770 |
| 411
Early June 1885 | Cimetière de Paysans, Victor Hugo, Paul Delaroche, Gérôme, Michel, Bodmer, Portier | . . . but how the life and the death of the peasants remain forever the same, budding and withering regularly, like the grass and the flowers growing there in that churchyard. | Cottage at Nightfall: F 83, JH 777; Old Cemetery Tower at Nuenen, The: F 84, JH 772 |
| 412
Second half June 1885 | Serret, Germinal | At times it makes me quite melancholy that the result is always "unsalable."
But I go on, and harden myself against it. | Cottage: F 91, JH 809 |
| 413
Second half June 1885 | Serret, Wallis, Wisselingh, Van Rappard, Hennebeau, Germinal, Millet | And who were the persons that had suppressed and refused Millet? The art dealers, the so-called experts. | Auction of Crosses near the Old Tower: F 1230, JH 770; Potato Eaters, The: F 1661, JH 737 |
| 414
21 or 28 June 1885 | Israëls, Artz, Labrichon, Frère, Knaus, Vautier, Decamps, Isabey, Corot, a Dupré, a Millet, Mantz, Harpignies, "The Moving Out" by Nuyen, Leys, Cabat, Diaz, Lepoitevin, Uhde, Meyerheim, Monnier, Clausen, Pinwell, Fred. Walker, Bridgmann, Serret, Lhermitte, Raffaelli | Every day I work hard on drawing figures. But I must have a hundred of them, even more, before I am through. I want to find something different from my old drawings and to grasp the character of the peasants – especially those from this neighbourhood. | Cottage at Nightfall: F 83, JH 777; Old Cemetery Tower at Nuenen, The: F 84, JH 772 |
| 415
Second half August 1885 | Wenkebach, Rappard, Israëls, Millet, Tersteeg, Mauve | One must not call it engaging in a hopeless struggle, for others have won, and we shall win too. | Avenue of Poplars in Autumn: F 122, JH 522; Potato Planting: F 84, JH 514 |
| 416
Early July 1885 | Raffaelli, Uhde, Knaus, Labrichon, Lhermitte, Santa Claus | I have been watching those peasant figures here for more than a year and a half, especially their action, just to catch their character. | --- |
| 417
mid-July 1885 | Serret, Raffaelli, Mantz, Sensier, Millet, Paul Dubois | Full Text | --- |
| 418
July 1885 | Millet, Gigoux, Delacroix, Portier, Jacque, Beyle, Lhermitte, Schelfhout, Koekkoek, Raffaelli, Régamey, Courbet, Benjamin Constant, Alfred Stevens, Tissot, Zola, Jacquet, Daumier, Ostade, Terborch, Velásquez, Israëls, Serret, Cabanel, Bastien Lepage, Michelangelo, Breton, Herkomer, Henner, Lefevre, Baudry, Mercier, Dalou | I can't tell the future, Theo – but I do know the eternal law that all things change. | Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Cottage with Peasant Woman Digging: F 89, JH 803 |
| 419
6 August 1885 | Bonger | I am rather busy, as they are reaping the corn in the fields, for, as you know, this lasts only a few days, and it is one of the most beautiful things. | --- |
| 419b
c. 7 August 1885 | --- | It may be that you don't think it reasonable of me to insist on my – and I should much prefer to say our – little painting business becoming the centre of a larger business which we might undertake together later on; but I for my part persist in claiming that something will and shall come of it, if only we remain sufficiently united. | --- |
| 420
mid-August 1885 | Serret, Portier | . . . my work is hampered and obstructed to such an extent that I am at my wit's end, and I prefer to tell the fellows: Sell the whole lot! But let me work! | --- |
| 421
Second half August 1885 | Rappard, Meunier, Portier, Serret, Wenkebach | . . . let's keep that little painting business of mine in good shape, for sooner or later we may need it badly. If a storm is threatening, one must keep the boats well trimmed. | Old Cemetery Tower at Nuenen, The: F 84, JH 772; Two Peasant Women Digging: F 96, JH 878; Two Peasant Women Digging Potatoes: F 97, JH 876 |
| 422
Late August 1885 | Leurs | I should propose that we undertake more things together, and not let anything crush us, either of us. On the contrary, we should both show that our hearts are full of vim and energy – and love of art of a sterling quality. | --- |
| 423
Early September 1885 | Lhermitte, Poussin, Bracquemond, Rappard, Millet, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Chenavard | But I, for my part, am convinced that in this respect one can have faith in modern art. | --- |
| 424
Late September 1885 | Bracquemond, Delacroix, Portier, Schoenfeld | Full Text | Still Life with Copper Kettle, Jar and Potatoes: F 51, JH 925; Potato Eaters, The: F 82, JH 764; Still Life with Two Baskets of Potatoes: F 107, JH 933; Still Life with a Basket of Potatoes: F 116, JH 934 |
| 425
c. 4 September 1885 | Lhermitte, Poussin, Rembrandt, Frans Hals | You cannot imagine what a longing I have to see pictures. | Still Life with Two Baskets of Potatoes: F 107, JH 933; Still Life with Three Birds' Nests: F 108, JH 940; Still Life with Two Birds' Nests: F 109r, JH 942; Still Life with Three Birds' Nests: F 110, JH 941; Still Life with Five Birds' Nests: F 111, JH 939; Still Life with Three Birds' Nests: F 112, JH 938 |
| 426
10 or 11 October 1885 | "Night Watch", "The Syndics", Frans Hals, P. Codde, Bürger, Rembrandt's "Jewish Bride", Delacroix, De Goncourt, Chérie, Israëls, Jules Breton, Jaap Maris, Willem Maris, Mauve, Neuhuys, Blommers, Fodor Museum. "The Shepherd" by Decamps, Meissonier, Diaz, Well, Bosboom, Waldorp, Nuyen, Rochussen, Gavarni | Let us paint much, this is necessary if we want to have success; just because times are slack we must work hard; then, instead of finding all harbours closed to us, we will one day sweep the seas with a broomstick in the mast. | View of Amsterdam from Central Station: F 113, JH 944; View in Amsterdam, De Ruyterkade: F 211, JH 973 |
| 427
October 1885 | Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Ruysdael, Unger, Bracquemond, Corot, Millet, Meissonier, Brouwer, Ostade, Terborch, Rubens, Diaz, Van Goyen, Jules Dupré, Cuyp, Rappard, Maris, Mauve, Neuhuys, Bastien Lepage, Mesdag, Delacroix, Israëls, De Goncourt | The saying "l'argent est le nerf de la guerre" is alas also true of painting. In war, however, the result is nothing but misery and destruction, and in painting one sometimes sows, though the painter himself is not the man who reaps. | View of Amsterdam from Central Station: F 113, JH 944; View in Amsterdam, De Ruyterkade: F 211, JH 973 |
| 428
Second half October 1885 | Burger, Mantz, Silvestre, Blaisse Desgoffe, Van Beyeren, De Goncourt, Chardin. Rembrandt, Lacaze, Frans Hals, Veronese, Rubens, Delacroix, Velásquez, Millet, Israëls, Apol, Dante | If you come across some good book on colour theories, mind you send it to me, for I too am far from knowing everything about it, and am searching for more every day. | Still Life with a Basket of Potatoes: F 100, JH 931; Still Life with Two Baskets of Potatoes: F 107, JH 933; Still Life with Three Birds' Nests: F 108, JH 940; Still Life with Three Birds' Nests: F 110, JH 941; Still Life with Three Birds' Nests: F 112, JH 938; Still Life with a Basket of Potatoes: F 116, JH 934; Still Life with an Earthen Bowl and Potatoes: F 118, JH 932 |
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Late October 1885 | Manet, Jules Dupré, Delacroix, Millet, Corot, Daubigny, Breton, Zola, Paul Huet, Israëls, Cabat, Isabey, Veronese, Doré | Just now my palette is thawing and the frigidness of the first beginning has disappeared.
. . . I study nature, so as not to do foolish things, to remain reasonable – however, I don't mind so much whether my colour corresponds exactly, as long as it looks beautiful on my canvas, as beautiful as it looks in nature. | Still Life with Bible: F 117, JH 946 |
| 430
Early November 1885 | Diderot, Voltaire, Delacroix, Newton, Stephenson, Ch. Blanc, Daubigny, Dupré, Van der Meer of Delft, Haverman, Ary Scheffer, Delaroche, Silvestre, Lhermitte, Goncourt | I am completely absorbed in the laws of colours. If only they had taught us them in our youth! | Autumn Landscape with Four Trees: F 44, JH 962; Lane with Poplars: F 45, JH 959; Still Life with Bible: F 117, JH 946; Parsonage Garden at Nuenen with Pond and Figures, The: F 124, JH 955 |
| 431
8-12 November 1885 | Goncourt, Boucher, Bouguereau, Perrault, Rubens, Chardin, Watteau, Corot, Latour, Voltaire, Rembrandt, Van der Helst, Bonnemort, Michelangelo, Zola, Mouret, Frans Hals, Van Goyen, Cuyp, Van der Meer of Delft | I do not know how I shall fare in the future. | Autumn Landscape with Four Trees: F 44, JH 962; Cottage at Nightfall: F 83, JH 777; Old Cemetery Tower at Nuenen, The: F 84, JH 772; Water Mill at Gennep: F 125, JH 525 |
| 432
12-15 November 1885 | Mother, Anna, Van der Loo | Full Text | --- |
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mid-November 1885 | Goncourt, Chardin, Reinier de Greef, Toon de Groot, Dien van de Beck, Millet, Sensier, Van der Loo, Zola | Thus concentrating everything on the work [in Antwerp], and going there as a poor man, I have nothing to lose in any case. | --- |
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c. 15-20 November 1885 | Leys, Bracquemond, Tersteeg, Wisselingh, Paul Huet | I painted continuously here to learn painting, to get firm notions about colour, etc., without having much room in my head for other things. | Lane with Poplars: F 45, JH 959 |
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c. 18-22 November 1885 | Rubens, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, the "Penseroso" by Michelangelo, Boucher, Gainsborough, Ch. Blanc, Jules Breton | Full Text | --- |
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