Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (22-24 December 1881) ... days at
Prinsenhage and will also come here. You must know, Theo, that
Mauve has sent me a paintbox with paint, brushes, palette,
palette knife, oil, turpentine - in short, everything
necessary. So it is now settled that I shall begin to paint,
and I am glad things have gone so far.
Well, I have been drawing a good deal recently, especially
studies of the figure. If you saw them now, you would see in
what direction I am going. Of course, I am now longing to hear
what Mauve will have to say. The other day I made some drawings
of children, too, and liked it very much.
These are days of great beauty in tone and colour; after I
have made some progress in painting, I will succeed in
expressing a little of it. But we must stick to the point, and
now that I have begun drawing the figure, I will continue it
until I am more advanced; and when I work in the open air, it
is to make studies of trees, viewing the trees like real
figures. I mean especially with a view to the...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (5 August 1882) ... I will tell you what I have bought.
First, a large-size moist-colour box containing 12 pieces or
tubes of watercolours, with a double cover, one of which can be
used as a palette; there is also room for about six brushes. It
is an article which is of great value for working in the open
air, and really absolutely necessary, but it is very expensive;
and I had always put it off and worked with loose pieces on
saucers, which, however, are very difficult to take with you,
especially if one has to carry other things besides. So this is
a fine thing which, now that I have it, will last a long
time.
At the same time I stocked up on watercolours and renewed my
brushes. Then, for oil painting, I now have everything which is
absolutely necessary, and also a stock of paints, large tubes
(which are much cheaper than the little ones); but you will
understand that I limited myself to the simple colours in
watercolour as well as in oil: ochre (red - yellow- brown),
cobalt and Prussian blue,...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (19 August 1882) ... gives me a new, fresh view of things.
The next time you send money, I shall buy some good marten
brushes, which are the real drawing brushes, as I have
discovered, for drawing a hand or a profile in colour.
Also, I see they are absolutely necessary for very delicate
branches, etc. No matter how fine, the Lyon brushes make too
broad stripes or strokes. My painting paper is also almost used
up - toward the first of September I shall have to buy a few
more supplies, but I shall not need more than the usual
allowance.
Then I want to tell you that I quite agree with several
points in your letter.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard (18-19 September 1882) ... man from the almshouse posing for
me.
Now it is really high time I returned Karl Robert's Le
fusain to you. I have read it through more than once, but
fusain [charcoal] does not come easily to me, and I prefer to
work with a carpenter's pencil. I wish I could see someone
doing a fusain - with me it becomes overdone so rapidly, and
this must be caused by something that, I think, might be
overcome when I saw someone else doing it. Next time you come
I'll have to ask you a number of things about it.
All the same I'm glad I've read it, and I quite agree with
the author that it is splendid material to work with, and I
greatly wish I knew how to use it better.
Perhaps I shall find out someday, together with a number of
other things that are still obscure to me.
So I am returning it with many thanks. I am including some
wood engravings - among which there are two German ones by
Marchal. I think the Lançons beautiful, and especially
the one by Green and “The...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 10 October 1882) ... or somewhere often helps me.
Well, be sure to write by the twentieth, I have had to buy
some Whatman paper and brushes. You cannot believe how many
things one sometimes needs. Well, it's the same with every
painter.
A handshake in thought, and believe me,
Yours sincerely, Vincent
...
