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"It is very probably that I shall have to suffer a great deal yet. And to tell the honest truth, this does not suit me at all, for under no circumstances do I long for a martyr's career. For I have always sought something different from heroism, which I do not have, which I certainly admire in others, but which, I tell you again, I consider neither my duty nor my ideal."
Vincent van Gogh |
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Of the letters that Vincent van Gogh wrote to his sister, Wilhelmina (Wil), 22 survive. All of them are presented in this section in their entirety.
Letter |
Keywords |
Excerpt / Full Text |
Link to Painting(s) Mentioned in Letter |
| W 1
Paris | Guy de Maupassant, Rabelais, Henry Rochefort, Voltaire, Candide, de Goncourt, Germinie Lacerteux, la Fille Elisa, Zola, La Joie de Vivre, L'assommoire, Zola, Flaubert, Richepin, Daudet, Huysmans, Bel Ami, De Groot, Margot Begemann, Mont Oriol | I have a dirty and hard profession--painting--and if I were not what I am, I should not paint; but being what I am, I often work with pleasure, and in the hazy distance I see the possibility of making pictures in which there will be some youth and freshness, even though my own youth is one of the things I have lost. | --- |
| W 2
Arles | Voltaire, Candide, Mauve | Full Text | --- |
| W 3
Arles | Tersteeg, Jet Mauve, Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Pierre Loti, Le mariage de Loti, Otaheite, [Richard] Wagner | Full Text | Still Life with French Novels and a Rose: F 489, JH 1332; Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book: F 393, JH 1362; Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve): F 394, JH 1379 |
| W 4
Arles | Rise and fall of the Dutch Republic, Mauve, Israëls, Domela Nieuwenhuis, Delacroix, Millet, Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Chaplin, Madame Chrysanthème, Pierre Loti, L'Abbé Constantin, Ohnet, Van Eeden, Mr. Vosmaer, | An acquaintance of ours used to assert that the best treatment for all diseases is to treat them with profound contempt.
People give a lot of money for the work after a painter himself is dead. | Self-Portrait in Front of the Easel: F 522, JH 1359 |
| W 5
Arles | Uncle Cor, postman [Joseph Roulin], Le mariage de Loti, Otaheite | When your body forsakes you, use your brains--you and I with our constitutions should take this to heart. | Zouave (Half Length), The: F 423, JH 1486; Sunny Lawn in a Public Park: F 428, JH 1499; Flowering Garden with Path: F 429, JH 1513; La Mousmé, Sitting: F 431, JH 1519; Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin: F 433, JH 1524 |
| W 6
Arles | Gauguin, the Louvre, Millet, Jules Breton, Daubigny, Corot, Delacroix, Joseph Roulin, Daudet | I hope when you go back to Holland you will take along some study of mine to decorate your room. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561 |
| W 7
Arles | Bel Ami, Zola, de Maupassant, de Goncourt | For my part I don't need Japanese pictures here, for I am always telling myself that here I am in Japan.
At present I absolutely want to paint a starry sky. It often seems to me that night is still more richly coloured than the day; having hues of the most intense violets, blues and greens. It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. They used to draw and paint the picture in the daytime after the rough sketch. But I find satisfaction in painting things immediately. The more ugly, old, vicious, ill, poor I get, the more I want to take my revenge by producing a brilliant colour, well arranged, resplendent. | Three White Cottages in Saintes-Maries: F 419, JH 1465; 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; Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin): F 456, JH 1581; Night Cafe in Arles, The: F 456, JH 1576 |
| W 8
Arles | Guy de Maupassant, Whitman, "Prayer of Columbus", Prévost, Monticelli, Gauguin, Cannebière, Monthenard | There is always some pretty annoying fatality in life. Well, painters die, or go mad with despair, or are paralyzed in their production, because nobody likes them personally. | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667 |
| W 9
Arles | Mrs. Mauve, Au bonheur des dames, Guy de Maupassant, Dickens | I don't know whether you can understand that one may make a poem only by arranging colours, in the same way that you can say comforting things in music. | Memory of the Garden at Etten: F 496, JH 1630; Novel Reader, The: F 497, JH 1632 |
| W 11
Arles | Mme. Duquesne, Voltaire, Candide, Flaubert, Bouward and Pécuchet, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Beecher Stowe, Dickens, Christmas Tales, Renan, Drône | I have had in all four great crises, during which I didn't in the least know what I said, what I wanted and what I did
I am unable to describe exactly what is the matter with me; now and then there are horrible fits of anxiety, apparently without cause, or otherwise a feeling of emptiness and fatigue in the head. | La Crau with Peach Trees in Blossom: F 514, JH 1681; View of Arles with Trees in Blossom: F 515, JH 1683; Orchard in Blossom with View of Arles: F 516, JH 1685; Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles, The: F 519, JH 1687; Ward in the Hospital in Arles: F 646, JH 1686 |
| W 12
Saint-Rémy | --- | Though it is with an obstinate ingratitude that I feel my health gradually returning, the fact is that I am quite well; but, as I told you, my inclination to take up the joys of life again can hardly be called strong. | Mountainous Landscape behind Saint-Paul Hospital: F 611, JH 1723; Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background: F 712, JH 1740; Green Wheat Field with Cypress: F 719, JH 1725 |
| W 13
Saint-Rémy | Rod, Le sens de la vie, Le philosophe sous les toits, Souvestre, Diuz, Shakespeare | Today I sent Theo a dozen drawings after canvases I am working on; otherwise my life is definitely as inept as it was when I was a twelve-year-old boy at boarding school, where I learned absolutely nothing. | --- |
| W 14
Saint-Rémy | Delacroix, Millet, Pierre Loti, My Brother Yves, Fisherman of Iceland [Pécheur d'Islande], Madame Chrysanthème, Carmen Sylva, Germinie Lacerteux, de Goncourt, Tolstoi, Mauve, Zola, Flaubert, Maupassant, Huysmans, Guillaumin, Rembrandt, Hals, Masker | I always think photographs abominable, and I don't like to have them around, particularly not those of persons I know and love.
It is splendid weather outside--but for a long time--two months to be exact--I have not left my room; I don't know why. | Wheat Field behind Saint-Paul Hospital with a Reaper: F 619, JH 1792; Self-portrait: F 626, JH 1770; Self-portrait: F 627, JH 1772; Pietà (after Delacroix): F 630, JH 1775; Portrait of Madame Trabuc: F 631, JH 1777; Olive Trees: F 711, JH 1791; Pieta (after Delacroix): F 757, JH 1776 |
| W 15
Saint-Rémy | Cor, Mauve, Lecomte, Margot Begemann, Felix Holt, Isaäcson, Dostoevski, Souvenirs de la maison des morts, Carmen Sylva's "Thoughts" | Full Text | Vincent's Bedroom in Arles: F 483, JH 1793; Red Vineyard, The: F 495, JH 1626; Self-portrait: F 525, JH 1665; Wheat Field behind Saint-Paul Hospital with a Reaper: F 619, JH 1792; Enclosed Field with Ploughman: F 625, JH 1768; Ward in the Hospital in Arles: F 646, JH 1686; Olive Trees: F 711, JH 1791; Wheat Field with Cypresses: F 743, JH 1790 |
| W 16
Saint-Rémy | Boussod, English Pre-Raphaelites, Millais, "The Huguenot", "The Light of the World" | Full Text | Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers/a>: F 456, JH 1561; Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers: F 458, JH 1667; Red Vineyard, The: F 495, JH 1626; Orchard in Blossom with View of Arles: F 516, JH 1685; Olive Grove: Orange Sky: F 586, JH 1854; Corner in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital, A: F 609, JH 1693; Mulberry Tree, The: F 637, JH 1796; Pine Trees against a Red Sky with Setting Sun: F 652, JH 1843; Olive Picking: F 654, JH 1868; Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun: F 710, JH 1856; Enclosed Field with Rising Sun: F 737, JH 1862; Breton Women (after Emile Bernard): F 1422, JH 1654 |
| W 17
Saint-Rémy | --- | And it is not necessary to say that I think of you all every day. | Pine Trees against a Red Sky with Setting Sun: F 652, JH 1843; Olive Picking: F 655, JH 1869 |
| W 18
Saint-Rémy | --- | Full Text | Olive Picking: F 654, JH 1868; Olive Picking: F 655, JH 1869 |
| W 19
Saint-Rémy | Gauguin, Millet, Bernard, Daudet | Well, the fact is that one cannot retrace one's steps, and the steps one has taken greatly influence the future. | Olive Picking: F 655, JH 1869 |
| W 20
Saint-Rémy | Monticelli, Gauguin, Degas, Millet, Delacroix, Henri Conscience | Thinking of this, but far away, I feel the desire to renew myself, and to try to apologize for the fact that my pictures are after all almost a cry of anguish, although in the rustic sunflower they may symbolize gratitude. | L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux): F 540, JH 1892; L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux): F 543, JH 1895; Blossoming Almond Tree: F 671, JH 1891 |
| W 21
Auvers-sur-Oise | --- | In Paris it was a great joy for me to see Theo again, and to make the acquaintance of Jo and the little one. Jo made an excellent impression of me; she is charming and very simple and brave. | Olive Grove with Picking Figures: F 587, JH 1853; Olive Picking: F 654, JH 1868; Olive Picking: F 656, JH 1870; Meadow in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital: F 672, JH 1975; Pine Trees and Dandelions in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital: F 676, JH 1970; Still Life: Vase with Irises against a Yellow Background: F 678, JH 1977; Still Life: Vase with Irises: F 680, JH 1978; Still Life: Vase with Roses: F 681, JH 1976; Still Life: Pink Roses in a Vase: F 682, JH 1979; Road with Cypress and Star: F 683, JH 1982; Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon: F 704, JH 1981; Olive Grove: Pale Blue Sky: F 708, JH 1855; Green Wheat Fields: F 807, JH 1980 |
| W 22
Auvers-sur-Oise | Puvis de Chavannes, André Bonger | What impassions me most--much, much more than all the rest of my métier--is the portrait, the modern portrait. | Old Cemetery Tower at Nuenen, The: F 84, JH 772; L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux): F 540, JH 1892; L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux): F 542, JH 1894; L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux): F 543, JH 1895; Self-Portrait: F 627, JH 1772; Blossoming Almond Tree: F 671, JH 1891; Still Life: Vase with Irises against a Yellow Background: F 678, JH 1977; Still Life: Vase with Irises: F 680, JH 1978; Still Life: Vase with Roses: F 681, JH 1976; Still Life: Pink Roses in a Vase: F 682, JH 1979; Portrait of Doctor Gachet: F 753, JH 2007; Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers: F 755, JH 1999; Marguerite Gachet in the Garden: F 756, JH 2005; Marguerite Gachet at the Piano: F 772, JH 2048; Church at Auvers, The: F 789, JH 2006 |
| W 23
Auvers-sur-Oise | --- | At times this [the Dr. Gachet portrait] might make a certain impression on people. There are modern heads which people will go on looking at for a long time to come, and which probably they will mourn over after a hundred years. | Portrait of Doctor Gachet: F 753, JH 2007; Landscape with Carriage and Train in the Background: F 760, JH 2019; Vineyards with a View of Auvers: F 762, JH 2020; Wheat Field at Auvers with White House: F 804, JH 2018 |
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