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RM15 Fragment of a letter on the back of the sketch Head of a girl (F 1507a / JH 1466). To John Peter Russell. Arles, on or about Sunday, 17 June 1888.

metadata
No. RM15 (Brieven 1990 629, Complete Letters )
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: John Peter Russell
Date: Arles, on or about Sunday, 17June 1888

Source status
Original manuscript

Location
New York, Guggenheim Museum. Thannhauser Collection. Inv. no. 78.2514T20.

Date
The fragment, which is part of an earlier version of letter 627, was probably written on the same day as that letter, which dates from about Sunday, 17 June 1888.

Additional
This sketch with a fragment of a letter was sent to John Russell, together with letter 627. Appearing on the back of Head of a girl (F 1507a / JH 1466) is a fragment of text that was part of an earlier version of that letter (which explains why both the letter and this fragment mention the same things), in which Van Gogh writes: ‘I was writing to you and ... instead of continuing the letter I began to draw on the very paper the head of a dirty little girl ... I enclose the slip of scribbling.’ See also exhib. cat. New York 1984, pp. 105, 255, cat. no. 51; cat. New York 1992, p. 178.

original text
 1r:1
of all and all.–
Have you been working in the country lately and is the house you are building getting on.
It appears that Claude Monet has done fine things, my brothers writes to say that he has at present an exhibition of 10 new pictures. One representing pinetrees by the seaside with a red sunset casting a red glow over stems, branches, foliage and the ground itself – a marvel I hear.1
Bernard is doing good things I believe and taking a lot of trouble.
Gauguin is still at Pont Aven [a]nd suffering of his liver complaint [bu]t working nevertheless

translation
 1r:1
of all and all.
Have you been working in the country lately and is the house you are building getting on?
It appears that Claude Monet has done fine things, my brothers writes to say that he has at present an exhibition of 10 new pictures. One representing pinetrees by the seaside with a red sunset casting a red glow over stems, branches, foliage and the ground itself — a marvel I hear.1
Bernard is doing good things I believe and taking a lot of trouble.
Gauguin is still at Pont-Aven and suffering of his liver complaint but working nevertheless
notes
1. This painting by Monet is Under the pine trees at the end of the day : see letter 615, n. 11. Theo sold the work to Paul Aubry for 2800 francs on 29 June 1888. See Wildenstein 1996, cat. no. 1191 and exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 215.