Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 1 June 1885) ... on showing it and I shall go on sending.
If he will write me his observations, I think they may be
useful to me, and he must not hold them back. I must tell you
that I sometimes long very much to see the Louvre and the
Luxembourg again, and that sooner or later I shall have to
study the technique and colour of Millet, Delacroix, Corot and
others. But it is not immediately urgent; I think the more I
work, the greater use it will be to me when it happens
someday.
But it is a fact that one needs both nature and
pictures.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 4 September 1885) ... the September Lhermitte, it is
splendid. You write about the Poussins in the Louvre; I am very
fond of Poussin. But how long - too long - is it since I saw
those paintings? You cannot imagine what a longing I have to
see pictures. I shall have to satisfy it anyhow. For the very
reason that I hope to go on trying to find buyers for my own
work, I think it will be a good thing for me to take a trip now
and then.
Longing most of all for Rembrandt and Frans Hals, this week
I shall go to the museum in Amsterdam for a day with a friend
of mine from Eindhoven, some of whose studies I showed you.
If I can enter into connections for my own work, I shall not
fail to do so, and I firmly believe that with perseverance I
shall win.
Speaking of my work, I had already written you that I have
been very busy painting still lifes lately, and I like it
immensely. I shall send you some.
I know, they are hard to sell, but it is damned useful, and
I shall continue to paint them this...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (10 or 11 October 1885) ... beautiful figure. It
is unique.
Delacroix would have raved about it - absolutely raved. I
was literally rooted to the spot. Well you know “The
Singer,” that laughing fellow - a bust in a
greenish-black with carmine, carmine in the flesh colour
too.
You know the bust of the man in yellow, citron amorti, whose
face, by the opposition of tones, has become a dashing masterly
bronze, purplish (violet?).
Bürger has written about Rembrandt's “Jewish
Bride,” just as he wrote about van der Meer of Delft,
2 as he wrote about “The Sower” by
Millet, as he wrote about Frans Hals, with devotion, and
surpassing himself. “The Syndics” is perfect, is
the most beautiful Rembrandt; but “The Jewish
Bride” - not ranked so high, what an intimate, what an
infinitely sympathetic picture it is, painted d'une main de
feu. You see, in “The Syndics” Rembrandt is true to
nature,...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (October 1885) ... and did not retouch it so very much.
And please note this too - if it was right, they left it
as it was. I have especially admired the hands by Rembrandt
and Hals, certain hands in “The Syndics,” even in
“The Jewish Bride,” and in Frans Hals, hands that
lived, but were not finished in the sense they demand
nowadays.
And heads too - eyes, nose, mouth done with a single stroke
of the brush without any retouching whatever. Unger,
Bracquemond have etched it well - just as it was painted - and
one can see in their etchings the way of painting.
Then, how necessary it is to look at the old Dutch pictures
in these days! and at the French painters, Corot, Millet, etc.
The rest might quite well be dispensed with, and it may lead
others more astray than they think.
To paint in one rush, as much as possible in one rush. What
joy to see such a Frans Hals, how different it is from those
pictures - there are so many of them - where everything has
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (8-12 November 1885) ... work can also be looked at up
close).
In that respect Chardin is as great as Rembrandt.
Israëls is the same, and I for my part think Israëls
always admirable, especially in his technique. It would be too
good if everybody knew this, and thought like this, as
Bonnemort would say.
But to work like that one must be something of a magician,
to learn which costs a great deal, and the sad sarcastic saying
of Michelangelo's: “Ma manière est destinée
a faire de grands sots” - is also true of the colourists
who dare dash on their colours, this too cannot be imitated by
cowards and weaklings.
I think that I am making progress with my work. Last night
something happened to me which I will tell you as minutely as I
can. You know those three pollard oaks at the bottom of the
garden at home; I have plodded on them for the fourth time.
I had been at them for three days with a canvas
the size of, let's say, that cottage, and the country
...
