218

Br. 1990: 217 | CL: 188
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: The Hague, Tuesday, 18 or Wednesday, 19 April 1882
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1. This drawing is not known.
2. This figure is an unknown version of Sorrow (see letter 216).
3. As regards this advice, which was probably prompted by reading Edmond and Jules de Goncourt’s Gavarni, l’homme et l’oeuvre, see letter 216, n. 4.
4. Theo, in Paris, had moved to 25 rue Laval (also called rue de Laval, now rue Victor Massé), in the ninth arrondissement. The exact date of this move is not known, but it definitely took place at the beginning of April. Theo lived at this address until June 1886.
a. Meaning: ‘laten afscheiden door middel van een wand’ (partition it off by means of a wall).
5. It was customary to dismantle the stoves in the spring, so that the rooms seemed larger. They were replaced in the autumn (cf. letter 274). The stove of the studio is visible in the following drawings: F - / JH 91, F 1116a / JH 139 [2370], F 936 / JH 140, and F 898 / JH 141.
[2370] [249]
b. Meaning: ‘voorts’ (furthermore).
6. An expression that means ‘to make the most of opportune moments’. In the context of this letter, however, it could have been meant literally, although ‘bleak and windy’ do not necessarily spell rain.
With regard to ‘snappen’, meaning: ‘grijpen’, ‘op papier zetten’ (seize, capture, commit to paper), cf. Van Gogh’s choice of words ‘dingen op heterdaad vatten’ (capture things first-hand) in letter 220.
7. The branch of Goupil’s where Theo worked was located at 19, boulevard Montmartre.