| | 37 letters relate to feelings - nostalgia... | Excerpt length: shorter longer | |
| Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(19 May 1877)
... Dear Theo,
What a fine day we spent together, one we shall not easily
forget. I want to make sure you find a letter on your return
from Etten. You no doubt had a good time at home too, so write
soon and tell me how you spent the day.
I am enclosing something for your portfolio, viz. a
lithograph after J. Maris, which might well be called “A
Poor Man in the Kingdom of God,” and a lithograph after
Mollinger - have you ever seen it before? I have not. At a
Jewish bookseller's, where I buy all the Latin and Greek books
I need, I had the chance of picking prints cheaply from a large
batch, 13 pictures for 70 cents. I thought I would take a few
for my little room, to give it some atmosphere, which is needed
if I am to get new ideas and freshen my mind.
I will tell you what they are, so that you can have some
idea of what it looks like now and what I have hanging up. 1
after Jamin (which is also hanging in your room), one after M.
Maris: that little boy going... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(21-22 May 1877)
... my other studies, which I do not neglect.
Yesterday at Stricker's they asked me to tell them about
London and Paris. When I do, I see it all again before me: all
that past time can be of help in my present work. I love so
many things over there, and oh! it was so wherever I lived; how
I feel it when I walk through the streets of The Hague or in
Zundert, for instance - I shall never forget that last visit
there.
Before I went to Stricker's I just stepped in the
Trippenhuis to look at some of the pictures. You know which.
Well, Theo, give my regards to the friends you may meet, write
soon, be as happy as possible, a firm handshake from
Your loving brother, Vincent
Twenty miles from Amsterdam, where Uncle Cor had his
country seat.
... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(4-5 June 1877)
... on me again. Tell me what you think of it. These
places mentioned in it - Hampton Court with its avenues of
linden trees full of rookeries; Whitehall overgrown with ivy at
the back; and the square bordering St. James's Park where one
can see Westminster Abbey - they are all before me, and the
weather and the gloomy atmosphere: cela m'empêche de
dormir. [It keeps me from sleeping.]
Were you in Etten Sunday? I certainly hope so, and that you
had a pleasant day. I gathered this from a sentence in the last
letter from Etten, “We expect Theo probably next
Sunday.”
This evening I have to go to Uncle Stricker's. Went to early
service yesterday morning, heard a sermon on the text:
“Do you want to be healthy?” - how they that be
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. After that
I heard Uncle Stricker in the well-known Amstel Church on II
Cor. 4: I 8: For the things which are seen are temporal; but
the things which are not seen are eternal.... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(12 June 1877)
... calmly wait and see how things turn out. I
have loved so many things in these cities; I often recall them
with tender melancholy, and I almost wish to go back there with
you. When I occupy a small place in that large Dutch Protestant
church, those recollections will furnish many a topic for
sermons. Let us go on with faith and confidence, you and I. Who
knows, we may shake hands one day, as I remember Father and
Uncle Jan did one time in the little Zundert church when Uncle
returned from his journey; many things had happened in both
their lives, and they finally felt, as it were, firm ground
under their feet.
As soon as you hear any particulars, be sure to write at
once. I hope we shall spend some quiet hours together before
you go. Though there does not seem to be any immediate
opportunity, such a thing can happen overnight. But I repeat,
brother, when I think of you, my heart goes out to you. I think
it is a very fine plan - my past comes to life again when I
... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(15 July 1877)
... be tired from your work in that
way.
Perhaps you will go to Scheveningen today. I hope you will
have a pleasant Sunday - how I should like to be with you in
your little room. I heard from home that you will probably soon
visit Mauve's house in the dunes and stay there overnight. In
my mind's eye I can see you sitting there, and also know what
you two will be taking about.
Mendes told me last week about a very interesting part of
the city - namely, the outskirts extending from the Leidsche
Poort, near the Vondel Park, to the Dutch Railway Station. It
is full of windmills and sawmills, workmen's cottages with
little gardens, also old houses, everything; it is very
populous, and the quarter is cut up by many small canals and
waterways full of boats and all kinds of picturesque bridges,
etc. It must be splendid to be a clergyman in such a
quarter.
The study is very difficult, boy, but I must keep on.
If you see Mauve and Jet one of these days, give them my
... |
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