Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 5 April 1889) ... I have still to thank you for your last letter, as well as
for the consignment of paints from Tasset and for several
numbers of Le Fifre with drawings by Forain. These last
especially had the effect on me of making me see my own stuff
as very sentimental beside them.
I waited several days before answering, not knowing which
day you were leaving for Amsterdam. Besides I do not know
either if you are getting married in Breda or in Amsterdam. But
if as I am inclined to think it will be in Amsterdam, then I
have assumed that you would find this letter there by
Sunday.
By the way - just today our friend Roulin came to see me. He
told me to give you many greetings from him and to congratulate
you. His visit gave me a lot of pleasure; he often has to carry
loads you would call too heavy, but it doesn't prevent him, as
he has the strong constitution of the peasant, from always
looking well and even jolly. But for me, who am perpetually
learning from him afresh, what a lesson for...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 13 April 1889) ... hope that everything has gone off well with you. Meanwhile
I have been obliged to ask Tasset for 10 meters of canvas and
some tubes.
And I still need:
12
Zinc white
Big tubes
1
Vermilion
Big tubes
1
Emerald
“
4
Malachite green
“
2
Cobalt
“
3
Chrome 1
“
2
ultramarine
“
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (22 May 1889) ... even without thinking about
it
These are the paints I need:
3 emerald green
2 cobalt
1 ultramarine
1 orange lead (big tubes)
6 zinc white
5 meters of canvas
Thanking you for your kind letter, I shake your hand warmly,
as I do your wife's.
Ever yours, Vincent
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (25 June 1889) ... My dear Theo,
Enclosed you will find an order for paints to replace the
one in my last letter. We have had some glorious days and I
have set even more canvases going, so that there are twelve
size 30 canvases in prospect.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (2 July 1889) ... your parents assures long
life.
Thank you very much for the package of colours. Subtract
them from the order sent since, but if you could manage it,
not for the quantity of white. Thank you also very
heartily for the Shakespeare. It will help me not to forget the
little English I know, but above all it is so fine. I have
begun to read the series of which I knew least, which formerly,
distracted by other things or not having the time, I could not
read; the series of the kings: I have already read Richard II,
Henry IV and half of Henry V. I read without wondering if the
ideas of the people of those times were different from our own,
or what would become of them if you confronted them with
republican and socialist beliefs and so on. But what touches
me, as in some novelists of our day, is that the voices of
these people, which in Shakespeare's case reach us from a
distance of several centuries, do not seem unfamiliar to us. It
is so much alive that you think you know them...
