622 (625, B6): To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Thursday, 7 June 1888.

622

Br. 1990: 625 | CL: B6
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Emile Bernard
Date: Arles, on or about Thursday, 7 June 1888
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Source status:

Original manuscript

Location:

New York, Thaw Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum

Date:

Van Gogh wrote this letter after his return from Saintes-Maries around 4 June (letter 620). Since he says that he is working up the drawings that he had made there, it must have been written not long afterwards. It also has to be dated a few days before Tuesday, 12 June (letter 623) because by then he was working on his harvest landscapes, which he does not mention here (he does refer to them in the next letter to Bernard (628)). We have consequently dated the present letter on or about Thursday, 7 June 1888. This is also borne out by the remark: ‘it appears that Gauguin is still ill’ (ll. 118-119); evidently Van Gogh had not yet received the letter reporting the latest state of affairs. He did get this expected letter on ‘Saturday’ – this must have been Saturday, 9 June 1888, when he replied to it (see letter 623, l. 112).

Arrangement:

The sketches sent with this letter included Still life with coffee pot(F - / JH 1428), which was previously placed with letter 612.

Ongoing topics:

Gauguin’s illness (581)

Visit to Saintes-Maries (617)

Bernard’s military service (575)

Sketches

A. Cottage in Saintes-Maries (F - / JH -), letter sketch. Notations: in the sky: ‘bleu’ (blue), twice; on the ground: ‘orange’ and ‘orangé’ (orange).
B. Woman with a parasol (F - / JH ), letter sketch. Notations: in the sky: ‘bleu’; on the ground: ‘orangé’.
C. Row of cottages in Saintes-Maries (F - / JH 1463), enclosed sketch. Notations: in the sky: ‘Citron vert pale’ (pale lemon green); on the roof of the house in the left foreground: ‘bleu & orangé’ (blue and orange); on the lower edge of the house: ‘cobalt tres clair’ (very light cobalt); on the side of the second house: ‘chrome 2’; on the chimney and the lower edge of the house: ‘blanc’ (white), twice; on the roof: ‘violet’; on the side of the third house: ‘chrome 2’; on the house in the left background: ‘émeraude’ (emerald); on the front of the house second from left in the background: ‘blanc’; on the roof of that house: ‘violet’; on the third house in the background: ‘orangé’ and ‘chrome 3’; on the surface of the street: ‘rose’ (pink); below the poppies beside the street: ‘coquelicots rouge’ (red poppies); on the vegetation on the right: ‘Vert’ (green).
D. Fishing boats at sea (F - / JH 1464), enclosed sketch; beside it two landscapes, here numbered 5 and 6 Notations: on the sail of the first boat: ‘jaune’ (yellow); on the sail of the second boat: ‘blanc’ (white); on the hull of the first boat: ‘vert’ (green); on the hull of the second boat: ‘rouge’ (red); in the water in front of these boats: ‘bleu’ (blue); a little lower down: ‘vert & blanc’; on the shoreline: ‘blanc’; on the beach: ‘vert & blanc rosé’ (green and pinkish white); in the water in front of the central boats: ‘violet vert’ (violet green).
E. Landscape with the edge of a road (F - / JH 1464), enclosed sketch. Notations: in the sky: ‘Bleu’ (blue); beside the leaves of the tree: ‘vert’ (green); beside the house in the background: ‘orangé & jaune’ (orange and yellow); below that: ‘ciel bleu’ (blue sky); on the ground in front of the house: ‘Vert’ (green); in the foreground: ‘jaune & bleu’ (yellow and blue).
F. Farmhouse in a wheatfield (F - / JH 1464), enclosed sketch. Notations: ‘maison rose’ (pink house); below that ‘ciel bleu’ (blue sky); on the right: ‘champ de blé / vert’ (field of wheat / green); below that: ‘route bordé / d’arbres / aux troncs violets’ (road lined / with trees / with violet trunks).
G. Fishing boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries (F - / JH 1461), enclosed sketch.
H. Still life with coffee pot (F - / JH 1428), enclosed sketch. Notations: in the background: ‘Citron vert pale’ (pale lemon green); on the orange in the left foreground: ‘mine orange’ (orange lead); below the cup and saucer on the left: ‘tasse bleu de roi / or & blanc’ (royal blue/gold and white cup); on the orange in the left background: ‘chrome 3’; above the milk jug on the left: ‘carrelé / bleu & cobalt’ (blue and cobalt check); on the tablecloth, centre foreground: ‘bleu myosotys’ (forget-me-not blue); on the foremost of the three lemons: ‘chrome / N° 1’; on the two other lemons: the numeral ‘1’ (for ‘chrome 1’); beside the coffee pot in the middle: ‘émaillé / bleu’ (blue enamel); on the edge of the saucer on the right: ‘chrome 2’; beside the cup on the right: ‘tasse blanche / dessins bleu / orangé’; (white cup / patterns blue / orange); beside the jug on the right: ‘pot en majolique / bleu à flammes / brunes à fleurs / roses & vertes’ (blue majolica jug / with wavy / brown decoration with / pink and green flowers).

1. Van Gogh would have been thinking first and foremost of Richard Wagner; he was in the middle of reading a book about him. Probably Camille Benoit’s Richard Wagner, musiciens, poètes et philosophes (see letter 621, n. 7).

2. Van Gogh added ‘de romans’ (of novels) later.

3. Van Gogh had previously written of ‘symphonies of colour’, possibly deriving the notion from Charles Blanc. See letter 537, n. 7. His reading about Wagner may well also have influenced his choice of words: ‘what an artist – one like that in painting, now that would be something’ (quel artiste – un comme ca dans la peinture, voila ce qui serait chic) (letter 621).

4. See for this reference to Alphonse Daudet’s Aventures prodigieuses de Tartarin de Tarascon: letter 609, n. 1.

5. This characterization of Japanese prints likewise applies to the Cloisonnism developed by Bernard and Anquetin. See letter 620, nn. 11 and 12.

6. See letter 536, n. 28, for the concept ‘contraste simultané’.

7. These descriptions tie in with the paintings Cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 419 / JH 1465

) and Row of cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 420 / JH 1462

8. No obvious examples of the fabrics Van Gogh describes have been found. He may have been referring to the summer clothing worn on feast days – a dress of black cotton or satin worn beneath a skirt of violet lace. The underlying dark colour could be seen through the delicate open weave of the lace, creating the optical effect of a checked dress. With thanks to Dominique Séréna of the Museon Arlaten in Arles.

9. This passage prompted Bernard to write to his parents: ‘Vincent has written to me. He likes it in Arles, recently he has been in the Camargue where he saw the Mystique girls, which made him think of Cimabuë and Giotto. He is a lad with a very broad, but overly independent, artistic temperament, and a deeply scientific side to him, despite that I still hope to see him come back with some great stuff. He grasps things quickly and in short has a well-developed artistic side (which is so rare!).’ (Vincent m’écrit. Il se plaît beaucoup à Arles, il est allé ces derniers temps en Camargue où il a vu des filles Mystiques, qui l’ont fait penser à Cimabuë et Giotto. C’est un garçon d’un tempérament artistique très large, mais trop indépendant, d’un côté scientifique approfondi, malgré cela je ne désespère pas de le voir revenir avec de fort bonnes choses. Il a la compréhension facile et en somme a le côté artiste très développé (cela est si rare!).) See Harscoët-Maire 1997, p. 174.

10. These scratches of landscapes are the enclosed sketches Row of cottages in Saintes-Maries (F - / JH 1463), Fishing boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries (F - / JH 1461), Fishing boats at sea, Landscape with the edge of a road and Farmhouse in a wheatfield (all three F - / JH 1464). They are after the following paintings: Row of cottages in Saintes-Maries (F 420 / JH 1462

), Fishing boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries (F 413 / JH 1460