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RM14 Fragment of text on the back of the sketch ‘Peasant woman, head’ (F - / JH 628). Nuenen, about January-February 1885.

metadata
No. RM14 (Brieven 1990 -, Complete Letters )
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Unknown
Date: Nuenen, about January-February 1885

Source status
Original manuscript

Location
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. d309 V/1970

Date
Probably about January-February 1885 (see Additional).

Additional
This text appears on the back of the sketch Head of a woman (F - / JH 628), which must therefore have been a letter sketch. It is not known to whom the original letter was addressed; the name [Hendrik Johannes] ‘Havermann’ occurs in the 1884-1885 correspondence in letters written both to Theo and to Van Rappard. The sketch was made after the painting Head of a woman (F 65 / JH 627); Hulsker 1996 assigns it to the period ‘Nuenen, January-February 1885’. The damage suffered by the sheet has obscured the meaning of the text, making it impossible to link it to a letter.
In Verzamelde brieven 1973, the sketch was included as an illustration accompanying letter 480; De brieven 1990 did not include it.
Only whole words have been translated.

Sketch

  1. Head of a woman (F - / JH 628), letter sketch

original text
 1r:1
eel pleizier en wou
id voor had –
ken zoo als ik ’t voel –
e van Havermann b.v.
r me in – iets jongs en
é – niet dat vind wat
grijpt – ik wou
edheid – genie –
een vrouwenfiguur –
orden brengen –
ou de la bonté est l’a
e – geloof ik zoo

 1v:2 [sketch A]
translation
 1r:1
pleasure and would
for had – as I feel it –
by Haverman, for example.
me in – something young and
do not find what
– I would
genius – a figure of a woman
bring – where some goodness is I do believe
 1v:2
[sketch A]