1r:1
My dear sister,
For a few days now I would have liked to reply to your kind letter, which I received while still in St-Rémy. Things weren’t working out there any more, and I was becoming rather iller through the treatment.
In Paris it was a great joy for me to see Theo again and to meet Jo and the little one. Jo made an excellent impression upon me, she’s charming and very simple and good. Yes it really seems to me to be going as well as possible for the moment.
And as for myself, for the moment I still fear the noise and the bustle of Paris and I left immediately for the country – to an old village.
Here there are roofs of mossy thatch which are superb, and of which I’ll certainly do something.  1v:2
Then I think that the doctor to whom I’ve been recommended1 will absolutely let me be as if nothing were wrong.
In the last few days at St-Rémy I worked in a frenzy. Big bouquets of flowers, violet irises,2 big bouquets of roses.3 Landscapes.4
It was odd to see all my canvases from the beginning again, from the time I left.
But I would very much have liked you to have seen the olive groves that I’ve brought with me now, with yellow, pink, blue skies, quite different, I think that these are canvases that haven’t yet been painted like this.5 Up to now the others always painted them in grey.  1v:3
I was very pleased to see the exhibition at the Champ de Mars,6 where there are many things I like a lot.

RM19

Br. 1990: 875 | CL: W21
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Willemien van Gogh
Date: Auvers-sur-Oise, on or about Wednesday, 21 May 1890
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1. Dr Gachet.
2. Irises in a vase (F 678 / JH 1977 [2904]) and Irises in a vase (F 680 / JH 1978 [2905]).
[2904] [2905]
3. Roses in a vase (F 681 / JH 1976 [2903]) and Roses in a vase (F 682 / JH 1979 [2906]).
[2903] [2906]
4. The landscape paintings Van Gogh made in Saint-Rémy after his last spell of illness included The garden of the asylum with dandelions and tree-trunks (F 676 / JH 1970 [2899]), Meadow in the garden of the asylum (F 672 / JH 1975 [2902]), Green wheatfield (F 718 / JH 1727 [2800]) and Road with a cypress and star (F 683 / JH 1982 [2907]). Cf. letter 891, in which Van Gogh reports the receipt of canvases from Saint-Rémy. According to Van Tilborgh, Field with green wheat (F 807 / JH 1980) is probably from Auvers and Couple walking among olive trees in a mountainous landscape with crescent moon (F 704 / JH 1981 [3066]) presumably originated earlier.
[2899] [2902] [2800] [2907] [932] [3066]
5. With regard to these paintings of olive groves with coloured skies, see RM21, nn. 4-7.
6. At the time of the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français an exhibition was also held at the Champs de Mars by the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, under the direction of Meissonier, showing the work of artists such as Puvis de Chavannes, Carolus-Duran and Rodin. See exhib. cat. Paris 1890-4 and cf. RM21, n. 10.