Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 15 May 1884) ... paintings by Maris and Israëls.
As to my own palette, you will not find the silvery
tones in my work done here, but rather brown ones (bitumen for
instance and bistre), which I do not doubt some people will
disapprove of.
But you...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (early June 1884) ... would certainly find it too
dingy.
It has already annoyed me for a long time,
Theo, that some of the present-day painters rob us of the
bistre and the bitumen, with which surely so many splendid
things have been painted, and which, well applied, make...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. mid November 1884) ... will soon
get an eye for colour.
I intend to make these people gradually pay, not in money,
but by telling them, You must give me tubes of paint.
For I want to paint a lot - continually, and I want to manage
so that I no longer need work at half...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 15-20 November 1885) ... very feeling that one has to enter the fight. I
am taking a good supply with me of the colours that I can get
brayed here myself, but it will certainly be a good thing if I
can get some colours of a better quality there.
I am also taking along at least forty...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (6-7 December 1885) ... to
come there with figure paintings.
Further, I have discovered useful resources for colours,
etc., where I shall be able to get them fairly cheaply. I have
also traced Linnig, whom you mentioned to me this summer when I
asked you whether you knew...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (8-15 December 1885) ... I cannot make both ends meet this month. I have bought some
more colours and two new kinds of drawing brushes which suit me
splendidly and with which I can work more accurately.
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 19 December 1885) ... or fantasy heads and figures of women.
It is a real delight to me to work with a better kind of
brushes, and to have cobalt and carmine, and the right kind of
brilliant yellow and vermilion.
The most expensive colours are sometimes the cheapest,
especially...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (28 December 1885) ... ideas and new means of expressing what I want; the better
brushes are going to prove a great help, and I'm very excited
by those two colours carmine and cobalt.
Cobalt - is a divine colour and there is nothing as fine for
putting an atmosphere round things....
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 25 February 1888) ... pouvais véritablement plus.
Il faut que je prenne mes couleurs et mes toiles soit chez un épicier,
soit chez un libraire, qui n'ont pas tout ce qui serait désirable. Il faudra
bien que j'aille à Marseille pour voir comment l'état...
