Dear Rappard,
Thanks for your quick reply - so you soon succeeded in
finding rooms, and are now living near the academy.
With reference to a certain question, which I descried at
the bottom of your postcard, I want to tell you that, far from
thinking it “stupid” of you to go to the aforesaid
sanctuary, I think it very wise, even so wise that - yes, that
I am almost tempted to say, a little bit too wise and
righteous.
In my opinion if you had not gone, if your expedition had
not taken place, it would have been all the better, but since
you have undertaken it, I wish you success from the bottom of
my heart, and notwithstanding everything, I have no doubt about
the good results.
You - and others too - even if you really and truly
attend the lessons at the academy, you will of course never be
in my eyes an “academician” in the despicable
sense of the word. Of course I do not take you for one of those
arrogant fellows whom one might call the Pharisees of art, and
the prototype of whom is, I think, “good old”
Stallaert. And yet even this man may have something good in
him, and if I knew him better, I might think differently of his
Honour. But it will be difficult to hammer it into my head that
his Honour does not have something damned bad in him too,
which eclipses his possible good qualities. Nothing pleases me
more than discovering good qualities even in such fellows. It
always hurts me, it always makes me nervous, when I meet a man
of whose principles I am obliged to say, “But this is
really too bad, this doesn't hold water,” and I go on
having this choking feeling until someday I discover something
good in him.
Never think it gives me pleasure to notice something wrong;
it grieves me and gives me so much pain that at times I cannot
keep it to myself. Ca m'agace [it exasperates me].
I do not like catching myself at “having a beam in
mine eye,” and yet - yet I have happened to catch myself
at it, but then I didn't let it go at that, and I tried to
remedy it.
And exactly because I know from my own experience how
terrible such a “beam in one's eye” is, I
sympathize with others suffering from the same complaint.
Please, please do not take me for a fanatic or a partisan.
Certainly I have the courage to take sides, like any other man;
at times one is compelled to do so in life, one is
compelled to speak one's mind and to give one's opinion
candidly, and stick to it.
But seeing that I do my utmost to look at the undeniably
good side of things in the first place, and only afterward,
most unwillingly, look at the bad side too, I make bold to
believe that, even if I have not quite succeeded in it, I shall
eventually arrive at what I may call in general a mild and
broad and unprejudiced judgment. And therefore it is to me a
petite misère de la vie humaine to meet a man who thinks
he is always right, and who demands to be taken for someone who
is always right; and this is because I am so convinced of my
own fallibility and, at the same time, of the fallibility of
all the children of men.
Now as to you, I believe that you too are striving after a
mild and broad and unprejudiced judgment of things, in life but
more especially in art. And therefore nothing is further from
my mind than looking upon you as a Pharisee, either in the
moral or in the artistic sense.
But for all that, such people as you and I, who decidedly
have honest intentions, are not perfect after all, and often
make very bad mistakes, and besides, are influenced by their
environment and by circumstances. And we should be deceiving
ourselves if we thought we stood so firm in our shoes that we
had no need to take heed lest we fall.
You and I “think we stand,” but malheur a nous
if we should become foolhardy and careless because we feel sure
- and rightly so - that we possess some more or less good
qualities. Attaching too much importance to the good that is in
us, even if it is really and truly there, may lead us to
Phariseeism.
When you are making vigorous studies after the nude like the
ones you showed me, whether at the academy or somewhere else,
when I am drawing potato diggers in a field - then we are doing
good things by which we shall make progress. But, as I see it,
for all that we must be especially distrustful of ourselves and
be on our guard against ourselves as soon as we perceive that
we are on the right road. When we must say: Let me be very
careful, for I am just the kind of man to spoil things for
myself when they seem good - unless I am careful. How must
we be careful???...this I cannot define, but I am most
decidedly of the opinion that in the case I mentioned, being
careful is necessary, for from my own bitter experience,
through my own sufferings and shame, I have become conscious of
what I underlined just now. The fact that my being conscious of
my own fallibility will keep me from making many mistakes will
certainly not prevent my making a great many mistakes after
all. But after we fall, we stand up again...!
So I think it a very good thing that you are painting from
the nude at the academy, just because I am confident that you
will not consider yourself righteous like the Pharisees on
account of it, nor think those whose views differ from yours
insignificant. Your work, far more than your words and
expressions, has given me this conviction, and it has grown
stronger and stronger.
Today, I drew another digger. And also since your visit, a
boy cutting grass with a sickle [F851, JH 061].
And a man and a woman sitting by the fire besides [F897, JH
063; F 1216, JH 064].
We all enjoyed your visit very much; I am so glad to have
seen your watercolours, you have made progress indeed.
Yet I should like to see you draw or paint ordinary people
with their clothes on. I shouldn't be surprised if you made a
success of it; I often think of that clerk whose portrait you
drew during the sermon of the Very Reverend and Learned Dr.
Kam. But since then I have not seen any more drawings by you
like that one, which I regret - have you been reclaimed, by any
chance, and are you listening more to the sermon nowadays
instead of paying attention to the speaker and his audience? In
some cases the speaker can carry us with him to such an extent
that we forget everything around us, but this often happens in
church, and I should wish it were always like that in
church.
Well, I hope that you will write soon, and that you will
have a good time and good luck in Brussels. And don't forget to
drop in on your return journey, if it is possible; let's agree
on that as a matter of principle.
Kind regards from my parents and a handshake in thought from
me. And believe me
Ever yours,
Vincent
At this time, Vincent was 28 year oldSource: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Anthon van Rappard. Written 2 November 1881 in Etten. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, number R03. URL: https://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/10/R03.htm.
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