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) ... Dear Theo,
Your letter and its contents, literary as well as financial,
were very welcome, and I thank you warmly for it. In the first
place, I was especially glad to hear that perhaps it will not
be so very long before you come to Holland again. I should like
very much to know as soon as it is possible for you to decide
whether it will be before or after New Year's. Am very glad
that you sent off the studies. These days, when I am making
many new ones, I feel so strongly that I must try to keep my
studies after the model together. How delightful it would be if
I could consult with you about the work more, but we are too
far away from each other.
Recently I saw, and I also have it in my collection, a large
wood engraving after a picture by Roll, “Une Grève
de Charbonniers” [Miners' Strike]. Perhaps you know that
painter, and if so, what have you seen of his work? This one
represents the entrance to a mine, before which there are
groups of men and women and children who have evidently stormed
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (31 and 2 Dec-Jan 1882) ... because it cuts
through it.
But it occurred to me to make a drawing first with
carpenter's pencil and then to work in and over it with
lithographic crayon, which (because of the greasiness of the
material) fixes the pencil, a thing ordinary crayon does not
do, or, at least, does very badly. After doing a sketch in this
way, one can, with a firm hand, use the lithographic crayon
where it is necessary, without much hesitation or erasing. So I
finished my drawings pretty well in pencil, indeed, as much as
possible. Then I fixed them, and dulled them with milk. And
then I worked it up again with lithographic crayon where the
deepest tones were, retouched them here and there with a brush
or pen, with lampblack, and worked in the lighter parts with
white body colour.
In this way I made a drawing of an old man sitting reading,
with the light falling on his bald head, on his hand and the
book . And the second one, the bandaged head of
an injured man. The model who...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 2 March 1883) ... accentuate the lights with Chinese white.
Do you remember that last summer you brought me pieces of
mountain crayon? I tried to work with it at the time, but it
didn't work well. So a few pieces were left, which I picked up
the other day; enclosed you'll find a scratch done with it; you
see it is a peculiar, warm black. You would greatly oblige me
by bringing some more of it this summer. It has a great
advantage - the big pieces are much easier to handle while
sketching than a thin stick of conté, which is hard to
hold and which breaks all the time. So for sketching outdoors,
it is delightful.
Well, boy - it is difficult to write it all, and I wanted to
answer your question about watercolour in more than words. I
should not want anybody to see just this one sketch of mine,
because I myself think nothing is right in this sketch except
the general aspect, and I will wrestle with the figures till I
get in watercolour what they are beginning to get in
lithography - that...
