Dear Theo,
I want to tell you that I have finished a few things which I
should like to send you.
I have read the book by Bracquemond more than once, and have
thought it over well. Though what he says about the colours
isn't new, though after all it comes to the same thing as the
theories discovered by Delacroix, though what he says about
drawing - modelling is drawing, drawing is modelling - isn't
new either, yet I have seldom read stronger expressions for
these and other theories.
Well, I like the book enormously, and it has rather
preoccupied me. The pictures I have for you are a few still
lifes, a basket with potatoes in it, fruit, a brass kettle,
etc., which I made especially with regard to the modelling with different
colours, and I should like Portier to see them. I shall send
them to you as soon as I have some money, for it's the end of
the month.
I am curious to see the new Lhermitte, if there has been one
this month. I ordered some colours from Schoenfeld in
Dusseldorf, because I could not get the right ones here.
That the colour of the “Potato Eaters” is not
good is, partly at least, the paint's fault. I was reminded of
it because I painted a large still life in which I sought
similar tones, and as I was not satisfied with it because I
again got the same things as before, I painted it anew. Judging
from this experience, it would have turned out much better with
the mineral blue I have now than with what I had before.
Goodbye,
Ever yours, Vincent
At this time, Vincent was 32 year oldSource: Vincent van Gogh. Letter to Theo van Gogh. Written late September 1885 in Nuenen. Translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, edited by Robert Harrison, number 424. URL: https://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/15/424.htm.
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