| | 61 letters relate to art - material... | Excerpt length: shorter longer | |
| Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(c. 21 March 1883)
... that one can find the same effect again.
I'm very glad to hear you found the crayon. It didn't arrive
in today's mail, however, though you wrote you had sent it. If
you have forgotten it, I remind you of it again, and if you
have already sent it, it will certainly arrive soon. I have a
new stock of lithographic crayon, and am going to combine it
with drawing crayon, which I think must give good
results.
This week I was very busy drawing wheelbarrows; a little
fellow viewed from the back came out quite well, I think. Van
der Weele came to see me, and we had a private exhibition of
wood engravings, seated cosily on a wheelbarrow, for I was just
working with a model. He will begin to collect them too, and
will try to get some from the collection of the late Stam, the
wood engraver.
I didn't tell you yet that I have almost the whole Graphic
complete now, from the very beginning in 1870. Of course, not
everything, there is too much chaff - but the best things from
... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(21-28 March 1883)
... it is vivid and powerful
enough.
I believe I've already written to you that I was able to
find some mountain chalk here in the city. I am at work with
that, as well.
To my mind the cold spell we had last week was the most
perfect part of this winter. It was fantastically beautiful,
what with the snow and the curious skies. The thawing of the
snow today was almost more beautiful still. But it was
typical winter weather, if I may call it that - the kind
of weather that awakens old memories and lends the most
ordinary things the sort of look one cannot help associating
with stories from the age of stagecoaches and post chaises.
Here, for example, is a quick little sketch I made in just
such a dream-like state. It shows a gentleman who, having
missed a coach or something of the sort, has had to spend the
night in a village inn. Now he has risen early, and having
ordered a glass of brandy against the cold, he is paying the
landlady (a little woman in a peasant's... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard
(21-28 March 1883)
... window at a landscape in the
snow.
I have found the “black mountain crayon” I wrote
you about here in this city too; it is something which was
virtually unknown to me until recently. But now I discover that
it is not so rare - and perhaps you know it, and have it
already. If not, I think it a suitable material for finishing
drawings up.
Adieu, old fellow, a handshake in thought - write soon and
believe me,
Ever yours, Vincent
See letter 274 to Theo.
... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(30 and 1 March-April 1883)
... and White”
exhibition.
I received the crayon - many thanks - it is very good. But
it is softer than the kind you gave me the first time, and the
pieces are half as long. I am still anxious to get that harder
kind in larger pieces, but nevertheless I'm very glad to have
this.
I made a large drawing with it combined with lithographic
crayon. It is a drawing of a digger - my model was the little
old almshouse man you know already - his bald head, bent over
the black earth, seemed to me full of a certain significance,
reminiscent, for instance, of “thou shalt eat thy bread
in the sweat of thy brow.” Now these drawings of the
woman with the spade [JH 337] and this digger have such an
aspect that people won't think they are made in some intricate
way, but rather won't think about how they are made at all.
But I believe that if I had made them with ordinary
conté pencil, they would have got a dull and ironlike
aspect, which would have made people... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(2 April 1883)
... brothers - is this your opinion
too?
Lately I have been working with printer's ink, which is
diluted with turpentine and applied with a brush. It gives very
deep tones of black. Diluted with some Chinese white, it also
gives good greys. By adding more or less turpentine, one can
even wash it in very thinly.
I think it will give good results on that paper Buhot gave
you.
Sometime when you are here we'll talk that matter over, and
I will show you drawings that might be made on it. A year ago
it puzzled me, how to get some very deep tones of black, but I
found a few of them in the printer's office. So now I can
penetrate a little further into seeking for plastic effects and
chiaroscuro.
Thanks for the good wishes on my birthday. It happened to be
a very pleasant day, as I just had an excellent model for a
digger. One thing I can assure you of, the work gets more and
more stimulating, and it gives me, so to speak, more vitality;
and then I always think of you, because... |
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