023 To Theo van Gogh. London, Tuesday, 16 June 1874.

metadata

No. 023 (Brieven 1990 023, Complete Letters 17)
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: London, Tuesday, 16 June 1874

Source status

Original manuscript

Location

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b17 V/1962

Date

Letter headed: ‘Londen 16 Juni 1874’

Additional

The address ‘Mr. Th. van Gogh’ written on the letter itself indicates that it was enclosed in a shipment sent from Goupil’s.

original text

1r:1

Londen 16 Juni 1874.

Waarde Theo,

Dank voor je brief.─

Ik denk Donderdag 25 of Zaturdag 27 Juni van hier te gaan, als er niets tusschenbeiden komt.1 Ik verlang zoo naar allen & naar Holland.─ Ik verlang er ook naar om eens goed met je over kunst te spreken, bedenk vast maar eens of je mij een & ander te vragen hebt.─

Wij hebben heel wat moois hier, o.a. een kranig Sch^ij van Jacquet, & een mooie Boldini.─2

1v:2

In de Royal Academy zijn dit jaar mooie dingen, Tissot heeft er o.a. 3 schilderijen.3

Ik ben in den laatsten tijd weer wat aan ’t teekenen geweest, maar ’t was niet veel bizonders.─4

Ik was blij uit je brief te zien dat je bij Haanebeek aan huis komt.

Adieu, tot ziens, groet alle vrienden. Steeds

je broer.

Vincent.

Ik ben blij je zooveel van Cesar de Cock houdt, hij is een van de weinige schilders die ons Brabant intiem genoeg begrepen hebben.─5 Ik weet niet of ik je verteld heb dat ik hem verleden jaar te Parijs ontmoet heb.─6

translation

1r:1

London, 16 June 1874

My dear Theo,

Thanks for your letter.

I think I’ll be leaving here on Thursday, 25 or Saturday, 27 June, if nothing unforeseen happens.1 I’m longing so much to see everyone and Holland. I’m also looking forward to having a good talk with you about art, start thinking about any questions you might want to put to me.

We have many beautiful things here, including a spirited painting by Jacquet, and a beautiful Boldini.2 1v:2

There are beautiful things at the Royal Academy this year; among others Tissot has 3 paintings.3

I’ve been drawing again recently, but it was nothing special.4

I was glad to see in your letter that you visit the Haanebeeks.

Adieu, goodbye for now, give my regards to all my friends. Ever,

Your brother.

Vincent.

I’m glad you like César de Cock so much; he’s one of the few painters to have understood our Brabant intimately enough.5 I don’t know whether I told you that I met him last year in Paris.6

notes

1. Van Gogh left for the Netherlands on 27 June 1874 and arrived in Helvoirt on 28 June (FR b2709).

2. It is not known which paintings this refers to.

3. An exhibition of the work of living artists was held every summer at the Royal Academy of Arts (in Burlington House on Piccadilly). Three works by James Tissot were on display that year: London visitors, c. 1874 (Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment. Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey), ill. 1699 ; Waiting (present whereabouts unknown), described in ‘The Royal Academy’, The Art Journal (July 1874), no. 151, p. 200 as: ‘autumn leaves overhanging the figure of a young lady waiting in a boat’; and The ball on shipboard, 1874 (London, Tate, presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1937). Ill. 1700 . See Wentworth 1984, p. 201.

4. It is not known which drawings this refers to. The drawing, previously attributed to Van Gogh, depicting the house at 87 Hackford Road (private collection), is thought by M. Vellekoop and S. van Heugten of the Van Gogh Museum not to be by his hand. Cf. Kenneth Wilkie, ‘Yes! It’s an original’, Holland Herald 8-2 (1973), pp. 10-13; and exhib. cat. London 1992, p. 120, cat. no. 7.

5. César de Cock, known as a painter of landscapes of Flanders and northern France, was called ‘the Flemish brother of Corot’.

6. The meeting referred to must have taken place during Van Gogh’s stay in Paris in May 1873.