165 To Theo van Gogh. Brussels, Tuesday, 12 April 1881.

metadata

No. 165 (Brieven 1990 164, Complete Letters 143)
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Brussels, Tuesday, 12 April 1881

Source status

Original manuscript

Location

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b163 V/1962

Date

Letter headed: ‘12/4-81’.

Ongoing topic

Van Gogh wants to become an illustrator (162)

original text

1r:1

12/4-81

Waarde Theo,

Van Pa gehoord hebbende dat er kans is dat gij Zondag a.s.1 te Etten zult komen & Pa mij schrijvende dat het goed zijn zou ik alsdan ook aldaar ware, zoo vertrek ik derwaarts heden.

Zoodat ik hoop U weldra te ontmoeten, ’t geen ik met groot verlangen te gemoet zie, ook vanwege dat ik twee teekeningen geschetst heb bij Rappard, “The lampbearers” en “The bearers of the burden”,2 waarover ik wel met U wilde beraadslagen over de verdere uitvoering. Om ze klaar te krijgen zal ik op de een of andere manier de noodige modellen moeten hebben & alsdan heb ik het vertrouwen dat er iets goeds van komt, n.l. een paar composities die ik aan Smeeton Tilly3 of de lui van de Illustration of dergelijken kan toonen.

Ik vertrek dus heden en meld U dit opdat gij niet welligt te Brussel naar mij zoeken mogt. Ik zou te Etten graag nog een paar schetsen op de hei maken, daarom ga ik een paar dagen vroeger.4

Alzoo ik hoop wij elkaar spoedig zien & druk U in gedachten de hand.

Yours truly

Vincent

translation

1r:1

12/4-81

My dear Theo,

Having heard from Pa that there’s a chance you’ll be coming to Etten this Sunday,1 and Pa having written to me that it would be good if I were there as well, I set out for there today.

So I hope to meet you soon, which I look forward to with great eagerness, also because I sketched two drawings at Rappard’s, ‘The lamp-bearers’ and ‘The bearers of the burden’,2 the further execution of which I wanted to discuss with you. To finish them I must, one way or another, have the necessary models, and then I’m confident that something good will come of them, namely a couple of compositions that I can show to Smeeton Tilly3 or the people from L’Illustration or suchlike.

So I’m leaving today and am telling you this lest you should perhaps look for me in Brussels. In Etten I’d like to make a few sketches on the heath, which is why I’m going a couple of days earlier.4

So I hope we see each other soon, and shake your hand in thought.

Yours truly,

Vincent

notes

1. Sunday, 17 April 1881 was Easter.

2. The drawing The lampbearers is not known; the other drawing is The bearers of the burden (F 832 / JH - ).

3. The English engraver Burn Smeeton and the French wood engraver Auguste Tilly formed a partnership in Paris. Their work appeared in Le Magasin Pittoresque, L’Art, L’Illustration and The Illustrated London News. The last-mentioned magazine had published their portrait of Corot after Gilbert, which Van Gogh knew (see letter 30, n. 6). They signed ‘Smeeton Tilly sc.’ It is not clear whether Smeeton Tilly was still operating as an engraving business in the 1880s, but their work appeared in L’Illustration until 1884.

4. Cf. Landscape with a hut (F 842 / JH 5); see letter 167, n. 3. Landscape (F 874v / JH 3) and Hut (F 875 / JH 4) probably date from the Brussels period.