Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 16 May 1882) ... I really need some more
money this month, though I paid for the bread up to the first
of June and laid in some provisions like coffee, etc.
Of course, since you tell me nothing's wrong as I imagined,
I will certainly finish the order for C. M.; I have already
made the studies. However, it will take me about three weeks to
get those six drawings, for in order to get six good ones, I
shall have to make more than six in addition to the work I have
already done. I do not know how much I shall get for them, but
I shall do my best, so I hope I shall get the money in
June.
If there is some good in my behaviour toward Christine after
all, it is more to your credit than to mine, as I
was and am only the instrument - without your help I should
have been powerless.
The money you sent has helped me on with my drawing, and
moreover, up to now it has saved Christine's and the child's
lives. But in a sense it would be my fault if you took it as a
breach...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (22 June 1882) ... hand we are superior in some other things. She came to visit me
regularly until the last day, and brought me some smoked beef
and sugar or bread, which I have to do without now, and it
makes me feel very faint. But now I am so sorry that I in turn
cannot go to Leyden to bring her some extras that she might
need, for the food one gets there is not particularly good. It
gives me such a strange feeling not to be able to do anything,
and see the days pass by so idly. Sometimes I think I shall be
able to do this or that, but then weakness gets the better of
me.
I am very glad you were interested in the drawings I sent
you. I worked so hard on them, and on the ones for C. M. also,
those last days when I suffered much more pain and was much
more depressed than since I have been here. For I felt worse
before I went to the hospital, long before.
Now I want to tell you that I've had a letter from Rappard.
Of course I had sent him back the 2.50 guilders at once, and
then...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (2nd half June 1885) ... has been and always will be so.
One may sleep on straw, eat black bread, well, one will only
be the healthier for it.
I should like to write more, but I repeat, I am not in a
mood for writing, and I wanted to enclose a note for Serret
besides, which you must read also, because I write in it about
what I want to send before long, especially because I want to
show Serret my complete figure studies. Goodbye,
Yours, Vincent
Serret may agree with you that to paint good pictures and to
sell them are two separate things. But it is not at all true.
When at last the public saw Millet, all his work together, then
the public both in Paris and in London was enthusiastic.
And who were the persons that had suppressed and refused
Millet? The art dealers, the so-called
experts.
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (28 December 1885) ... continue until all the money has gone. Meanwhile what will be
keeping me going is my breakfast with the people where I live,
and a cup of coffee and some bread in the crêmerie in the
evening. Supplemented, when I can, by a second cup of coffee
and bread in the crêmerie for my supper or else some rye
bread I keep in my trunk. As long as I am painting that is more
than enough, but when my models have left, a feeling of
weakness does come over me.
The models here appeal to me because they're so completely
unlike the models in the country. And more especially because
their character is completely different. And the contrast has
given me some new ideas for the flesh colours in particular.
And though I'm still not satisfied with what I've achieved with
my last head, it does differ from the earlier ones.
I think you value the truth enough for me to speak freely to
you. For much the same reasons that if I paint peasant women I
want them to be peasant...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 21 April 1888) ... you have got his study of the Negress.
But indeed, it will
do you good to have breakfast. I do it
here myself, and eat two eggs every morning.
