Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (early July 1884) ... in the
reddish bronze of the corn.
It would be a thing that gave a good impression of summer. I
think summer is not easy to express; generally, at least often,
a summer effect is either impossible or ugly, at least I think
so, but then, as opposition, there is the twilight.
But I mean to say that it is not easy to find a summer sun
effect which is as rich and as simple, and as pleasant to look
at as the characteristic effects of the other seasons.
Spring is tender, green young corn and pink apple
blossoms.
Autumn is the contrast of the yellow leaves against violet
tones.
Winter is the snow with black silhouettes.
But now, if summer is the opposition of blues against an
element of orange, in the gold bronze of the corn, one could
paint a picture which expressed the mood of the seasons in each
of the contrasts of the complementary colours (red and green,
blue and orange, yellow and violet, white and black.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard (2nd half September 1884) ... even in its first stage.
1
As I told you already, what I said about it may be wrong in
so far as my words - “If you keep the division of
the space substantially as it is now, it is my opinion that it
can be saved only by a division of light and brown, a vigorous
effect of chiaroscuro” - may apply to something quite
different, may flatly contradict your intention - if you wanted
to make a grey picture, for instance. And yet - I suppose your
sketch conforms to the picture with regard to the amount of
canvas space taken up by your figures as compared to the
canvas space taken up by the houses, street, sky. And then it
struck me at once that the figures would be crushed by the
rest, and that there would be too much of a struggle
between the figures and the surroundings.
Well, I'm damned sorry I didn't see the picture itself in
its first stage.
All the same I did not lose sight of the fact - as you
suppose - that it is you who are...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (October 1884) ... my part don't consider superfluous.
The key to many things is the thorough knowledge of the
human body, but it costs money to learn it. Besides, I am quite
sure that colour, that chiaroscuro,
that perspective, that tone and that
drawing, in short, everything has fixed laws
which one must and can study, like chemistry or algebra. This
is far from being the easiest view of things, and one
who says, “Oh, one must know it all instinctively,”
takes it very easy indeed. If that were enough! But it isn't
enough, for even if one knows ever so much by instinct,
that is just the reason to try ever so hard to pass from
instinct to reason. That's what I think.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (21 April 1885) ... not
formulated as it should be.
I mean there are (rather than persons) rules or principles
or fundamental truths for drawing, as well as for
colour, upon which one proves to fall back when
one finds out an actual truth.
In drawing, for instance - that question of drawing the
figure beginning with the circle - that is to say taking as
one's basis the elliptical planes. A thing which the ancient
Greeks already knew, and which will continue to apply till the
end of the world. As to colour, those everlasting problems, for
instance, that first question Corot addressed to
Français, when Français (who already had a
reputation) asked Corot (who then had nothing but a negative or
rather bad reputation) when he (F) came to Corot, to get some
information: “Qu'est-ce que c'est un ton rompu? Qu'est-ce
que c'est un ton neutre?” [what is a broken tone? What is
a neutral tone?]
Which can be better shown on the palette than expressed in
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 30 April 1885) ... [acting-creating.]
When weavers weave that cloth which I think they call
cheviot, or those curious multicoloured Scottish tartan
fabrics, then they try, as you know, to get strange broken
colours and greys into the cheviot - and to get the most vivid
colours to balance each other in the multicoloured chequered
cloth - so that instead of the fabric being a jumble, the
effet produit [overall effect] of the pattern looks
harmonious from a distance.
A grey woven from red, blue, yellow, off-white and black
threads - a blue broken by a green and an orange, red or yellow
thread - are quite unlike plain colours, that is, they
are more vibrant, and primary colours seem hard, cold
and lifeless beside them.
Yet the weaver, or rather the designer, of the pattern or
the colour combination does not always find it easy to make an
exact estimate of the number of threads and their direction -
no more than it is easy to weave brush strokes into a
harmonious whole....
