2. Mr van Gogh also suspected that Vincent would probably do better if there were other painters around. He wrote to Theo about this isolation on 9 December 1884: ‘I should wish for Vincent that the winter was already over. Painting outdoors is obviously not possible, and the long evenings likewise do nothing to help his work progress. So it’s as though we have to think that he really should be more in the surroundings of people from his profession. But we follow and do not want to point out any path, we still regret the business with
Margot, who isn’t here any more, and I think she’s suffering because of it. What difficult circumstances, which we might have been spared if he was more normal, but that isn’t the case’ (FR b2263).