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625 To Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Friday, 15 and Saturday, 16 June 1888.

metadata
No. 625 (Brieven 1990 628, Complete Letters 498)
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Arles, on or about Friday, 15 and Saturday, 16 June 1888

Source status
Original manuscript

Location
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. b539 V/1962 (sheet 1) and b578 V/1962 (sheet 2)

Date
Vincent had asked Theo if he could have his allowance a few days earlier (letter 624), and in the present letter he thanks him for the 100 francs he sent (l. 7). The wording ‘that’s the subject I’ve been working on this week’ (l. 105) suggests that the letter was written towards the end of the week. We have therefore dated this part on or about Friday, 15 June 1888.
In view of the importance to Van Gogh of Gauguin’s decision about going to Arles, the (unknown) letter to Gauguin we think was enclosed with this letter, including the second sheet (ll. 183 ff.), would certainly have been written not long after the promise he made in ll. 168-169 (‘I won’t write to Gauguin direct – I’ll send you the letter’). We assume that it would have been about a day later, which makes the dating of the two sheets together on or about Friday, 15 and Saturday, 16 June 1888.

Arrangement
In the early editions, the second sheet – without salutation or signature, and functioning as an accompanying note to a letter from Van Gogh to Gauguin which he sent Theo to read first – was published on its own among the letters written in September 1888. Hulsker regarded it as an enclosure with letter 679 and dated it 11-15 September (Hulsker 1973, p. 152). Pickvance then suggested placing it after letter 625, but it is not clear whether he meant as an enclosure to this letter or on its own after it. Hulsker later changed his mind and suggested – at A. Karagheusian’s instigation, he says – placing it as a postscript to letter 629 (memo to the Van Gogh Museum, February 1987). This must have been the reason why the sheet followed immediately after letter 629 in De brieven 1990, albeit as a letter in its own right (632 [535a]).
The subjects discussed are not much help in establishing the sequence because in this period of intensive correspondence the same issues crop up several times; they include Gauguin’s plans, Van Gogh’s aim of painting fifty canvases and so forth. In our view, however, there are two arguments for placing the sheet – in line with Pickvance – before letter 629. The surprise evident in the phrase ‘I didn’t know he had so large a family’ (ll. 199-200) is absent in letter 629 of 21 June; by then Van Gogh obviously knew that Gauguin had a large family (l. 113). He also writes in that letter that he expects the plans to become clearer once Gauguin has answered the letter enclosed with the present one, which must consequently already have been sent by then.
We have taken the fact that the accompanying letter – the second sheet discussed here – has no salutation or signature as a reason to regard it as an addition to the present letter. The assumption is that Vincent would have opened and closed his accompanying letter with a salutation and a signature had he sent Theo the letter for Gauguin separately. This cannot be established with absolute certainty; it remains conceivable that the letter for Gauguin was sent to Theo with a sheet as an accompanying letter without the usual formalities, because its imminent arrival had been announced shortly before.

Ongoing topics
Gauguin coming to Arles (602)
The plan to go back to Saintes-Maries (621)
Efforts to interest Tersteeg in modern art (580)
Plans for a society of artists (584)
Mourier-Petersen’s stay with Theo (623)

original text
 1r:1
Mon cher Theo,
En cas de doute mieux vaut s’abstenir1 – voilà je crois ce que je disais dans la lettre à Gauguin, voilà ce que je pense actuellement ayant lu sa réponse.–2 S’il revient à la proposition de son côté – il est bien libre d’y revenir – mais on aurait l’air de je ne sais trop quoi si on insistait pour le moment pour lui faire dire oui.
Tu vois que j’ai reçu ta lettre, je t’en remercie beaucoup et il y avait bien des chôses dedans, je te remercie beaucoup du billet de 100 francs – pour ce qui est du retard de la depêche, elle était datée de dimanche3 donc la faute est au facteur mais cela ne faisait rien puisque la voiture pour Stes Maries part tous les jours.
Seulement ce qui m’arrêtait c’était la nécessité d’acheter des toiles et de payer le loyer. je t’ai deja dit un mot que pour le travail dehors la toile de Tasset ne m’a pas plu énormément. Dans l’avenir nous prendrons je crois l’ordinaire.4 J’ai acheté pour 50 francs de toiles avec chassis – aussi puisque j’ai besoin des chassis de divers formats pour tendre des toiles dessus, quand bien même que je te les enverrais roulées. C’est les formats un peu grands, les 30, 25, 20, 15, tous carrés. Il me semble que les grands formats (après tout c’est pas bien grand) me vont mieux.
Mais je te parle de ce que tu écris dans ta lettre. Je te felicite d’avoir l’exposition Monet chez toi et je regrette bien de ne pas la voir.5 Cela ne fera certes pas de mal à Tersteeg d’avoir vu cette exposition,6 il y viendra encore, mais comme c’etait aussi ton idee, bien tard. Certes c’est curieux qu’il a changé d’opinion au sujet de Zola. je le sais par expérience encore qu’il ne pouvait pas en entendre parler.– Quel drôle de caractère que Tersteeg, avec lui il ne faut pas desespérer – il a cela d’excellent que quelques raides et arrêtées soient ses opinions, une fois qu’il a reconnu qu’une chôse est effectivement autre qu’il se l’est imaginé – comme avec Zola – alors il change et devient hardi pour la cause. Malheureusement on ne vit pas vieux dans la vie moderne et monsieur Tersteeg a vécu plus qu’il ne vivra. Et où son remplaçant? – Mon dieu quel malheur que lui et toi ne soient pas absolument un pour les affaires maintenant. Mais qu’en dire – c’est ce qu’on appelle je crois une fatalité.
Tu as eu de la chance de rencontrer Guy de Maupassant7 – je viens de lire son premier livre “Des vers”, poesies dediées à son maître Flaubert. il y en a un, “au bord de l’eau”, qui est déjà lui.8 Voilà, ce que van der Meer de Delft est à côté de Rembrandt dans les peintres, il l’est dans les romanciers francais à côté de Zola.–
En somme la visite de Tersteeg n’est pas du tout ce que j’avais osé en espérer et je ne m’en cache pas que j’ai fait sur les probabilités de sa coopération un faux calcul.
Et peut être sur l’affaire avec Gauguin aussi. Voyons cela un peu: je pensais qu’il était aux abois et je me fais des reproches d’avoir de l’argent et le copain qui travaille mieux que moi pas – je dis, la moitié lui est dû à lui s’il veut.
Mais – si Gauguin n’est pas aux abois alors je ne suis pas exessivement pressé.
 1v:2
Et je m’en retire catégoriquement et la seule question demeure pour moi tout simplement celle ci: Si je cherchais un copain pour travailler ensemble, ferais je bien, serait ce plus avantageux pour mon frère et moi, le copain y perdrait-il ou est ce qu’il y gagnerait.–
Voilà ce sont alors des questions qui certes me preoccupent mais demandent la rencontre d’une realité pour devenir des faits.
Je ne veux pas discuter le projet de Gauguin9 ayant une fois réflechi sur la situation – cet hiver – tu connais les resultats.– Tu sais que je crois qu’une association des impressionistes serait une affaire dans le genre de l’associations des 12 preraphaelites anglais10 et que je crois qu’elle pourrait naitre. Qu’alors je suis porté à croire que les artistes entre eux se garantiraient la vie reciproquement et indépendemment des marchands, se résignant à donner chacun un nombre de tableaux considérable à la société et que les gains comme les pertes seraient communs.– Je ne crois pas que cette societé demeurerait indéfinement mais je crois que pendant le temps qu’elle serait vivante on vivrait courageusement et qu’on produirait. Mais si demain Gauguin et ses juifs banquiers viennent me demander rien que 10 tableaux pour une société marchande et pas une societé d’artistes, je ne sais ma foi si j’aurais confiance – moi qui pourtant volontiers en donnerais 50 à une société d’artistes.–
N’est ce pas un peu comme avec Reid – pourquoi dire que Gabriel de la Roquette est un drôle si vous même faites comme lui.–11 Pourquoi dire Societé artistique si elle est composée de banquiers.– Suffit, mon Dieu que le copain fasse ce que le coeur lui dit mais son projet est loin de m’enthousiasmer.
J’aime mieux les choses telles qu’elles sont – les prendre comme cela est, sans rien y changer, que les reformes à demi.–
La grande revolution, l’art aux artistes, mon dieu peut etre est ce une utopie et alors tant pis.  1v:3 Je crois que la vie est si courte et va si vite. Or etant peintre il faut pourtant peindre.
Et tu sais bien aussi que puisque alors – cet hiver avec Pissaro et les autres on a par hasard beaucoup causé de cela, je m’efforce maintenant de ne plus rien y ajouter que ceci, que personellement avant l’année prochaine je veux faire ma part de 50 tableaux. Si je reussis à faire cela alors je garde mon opinion.
Aujourd’hui je t’ai envoyé par la poste 3 dessins.12
Celui avec les meules dans une cour de ferme te paraîtra trop bizarre mais c’est fait très à la hâte comme projet de tableau et c’est pour te montrer la chôse.13
Maintenant, la moisson est un peu plus sérieux. Voilà c’est le motif auquel j’ai travaillé cette semaine sur une toile de 3014 – c’est pas très fait du tout – mais ça me tue le reste que j’ai, à l’exeption d’une nature morte travaillée avec patience.15 Mac Knight et un de ses amis qui a eté en Afrique aussi16 la voyaient aujourd’hui cette etude et disaient que c’était la meilleure que j’avais faite.– Comme Anquetin et l’ami Thomas – on ne sait trop que penser de soi quand on entend dire cela mais je me dis: le reste doit pour sûr paraître bougrement mauvais.
Enfin – les jours que je rapporte une étude je me dis, si c’était ainsi tous les jours cela pourrait marcher – mais les jours qu’on revient bredouille et qu’on mange et dort et dépense pourtant, on n’est pas content de soi et se sent un fou, un coquin ou une vieille peau.
Et le cher docteur Ox, je veux dire notre Suédois Mouries,17 moi je l’aimais assez parceque il allait dans ce mechant monde candidement et avec benignité avec ses lunettes et parceque je lui supposais un coeur plus vierge que bien des coeurs et meme avec plus d’inclinaison à la droiture que n’en ont bien des plus malins. Et puisque je savais qu’il ne faisait pas de la peinture depuis longtemps cela m’etait bien égal que son travail etait le comble du niais.– Et je l’ai vu journellement pendant des mois.– Bon. Quelle peut donc être la raison de ce qu’il perd ses qualités.– Voici ce que je m’imagine être le cas.– Saches qu’il est venu dans le midi pour se remettre d’une maladie nerveuse causée par un tas de contrariétés qu’il a eues et par suite desquelles il a changé de carrière.18
 1r:4
Il allait parfaitement bien ici, il était très calme &c.– Mais la secousse de Paris a été trop forte, le changement trop subit, il ne trouve pas le Paris qu’il s’est rêvé et le voila inquiet et peut être désagréable et en tout cas faisant des bêtises.
Il aura vite jeté sa gourme j’espère. En attendant laisse le donc faire tout ce qu’il voudra sans y attacher de l’importance. Il fonde un tas d’espérances sur Russell (je crois), il cherche un conseiller et un maître – or – pas besoin de te dire que Russell ne sera peut etre pas tout ce dont il a besoin mais je crois que Russell verra que c’est quelqu’un qui ne connait pas l’entourage auquel il a affaire et je pense que Russell le prendra au serieux et cherchera à être bon pour lui.– Je crois que Russell se fait de la reputation dans ceux qui ont peur de Paris instinctivement. C’est difficile à expliquer ce que je veux dire par là.
Russell est un homme tellement bon19 – mais tu sais on ne peut pas recommander ou imposer au gens d’aimer Paris, pas plus qu’on puisse leur recommander les pipes ou les café nature avec des cognacs. Puis Russell est riche et a perdu de l’argent à Paris donc il peut dire aux gens et il le dit: “voila ce à quoi j’ai eu affaire”.20 Seulement en tous les cas je vais un peu écrire à Russell.
Il parait que Mac Knight n’était pas très content de moi mais que Russell lui a signifié qu’il avait à se taire en réponse. Tout ceci pour te dire que je comprends fort fort bien – vu qu’il a tourné comme ça – que tu n’es pas tout à fait d’accord avec le Suedois qui probablement alors d’après ce que tu ecris est repris par son mal nerveux et est agacé par Paris. S’il a de l’argent à perdre pour prendre un atelier à la Gerome21 ce serait grave. Vu que je doute un peu qu’il en ait énormement à perdre, il y sera pour un petit ereintement ma foi un peu merité. On n’y peut rien s’il ne veut pas écouter, seulement faut pas rester avec. Je n’ecris pas à Gauguin directement – je t’enverrai la lettre – parceque il faudrait s’abstenir en cas de doute. SI NOUS NE DISONS PLUS RIEN, si la réponse montre que nous avons dit une chose comme ça mais qu’il faut qu’il y ait de son côté initiative pour la chôse aussi alors nous pourrons voir s’il y tient. S’il n’y tient pas, si cela lui est égal, s’il a tout autre chôse en tête, qu’il reste indépendant et moi aussi.
Poignée de main à toi et à Mouriés.

t. à t.
Vincent

Je trouve etrange assez dans ce plan de Gauguin ceci surtout: la societé échange sa protection contre 10 tableaux que les artistes auront à donner, si dix artistes font cela la societé juive empoche carrément “pour commencer” 100 tableaux. sa protection de cette societé qui n’existe même pas coûte bien cher.

 2r:5
Voici la lettre pour Gauguin – je sais bien qu’il y a dans la sienne ce passage “je demande (souligné) si étant donné le capital formé ou à moitié formé votre frère employerait ses efforts pour mener l’affaire à bien et en être le directeur”. Je sais bien qu’il écrit aussi “en principe j’accepte votre proposition”. Mais je crois que cela pourrait nous mener trop loin de ne pas être un peu ferme dans ce qu’on lui montrerait que notre proposition etait sans toutes ces arrière pensées et que nous sommes nous mêmes trop gênés pour pouvoir risquer autre chôse que de faire menage ensemble en partageant l’argent du mois.
Et c’est vrai j’ignorais qu’il avait une si grande famille, il doit plutôt vouloir rester dans le nord à cause de cela.22
Le comble de ce qu’on pourrait faire serait que je laisse aller le midi et si cela le tirait d’affaire venir de mon côté le rejoindre en Bretagne. Et le désir que j’ai de travailler dans le midi est naturellement subordonné à l’intérêt de gens tel que lui.
Tout de même il ne faudrait pas changer légèrement.
Et j’ai un peu peur d’être engueulé de l’avoir séparé de sa famille ou un guêpier comme cela.
Mon dieu s’il a une si grande famille probablement ses devoirs sont de ne pas s’en absenter davantage. Et peutêtre serait il bien plus content si tu lui achetais tout simplement un tableau de temps en temps.–
 2v:6
Si maintenant je n’ai pas relevé ces deux passages et d’autres passages dans sa lettre c’est que c’est bien trop difficile de dire oui à cela candidement il me semble. Si pourtant était que tout son plan n’est qu’une fata morgana et disparaîtra comme telle, de son propre mouvement il en reparlera.
Mais il y a le voyage, la dette à l’auberge, la note du medecin, maintenant il parle encore d’une dette de 300 fr. qu’il solde avec ce tableau si son amateur accepte.–23 Mais s’il n’accepte pas? – Enfin c’est qu’il serait peu prudent de lui donner des esperances au-dessus de nos moyens et de s’engager à faire plus que l’on ne pourrait tenir. Gauguin a beau dire, il est très très agité et c’est dommage et cela ne saurait faire du bien à son travail. Non il ne faut pas changer à ce que nous avons dit et considerer la chose comme ne se faisant pas à cause des doutes et des changements dont la présence n’est pas bon signe. Plus que moi je me calme ici et plus je reprends des forces, plus je sens que le travail est encore le plus sûr.
J’admets que si la vie en Bretagne est bien moins chère je dois à la rigueur sacrifier mon plan de travailler ici et cela je le ferai volontiers si c’est dans son avantage. Mais raison de plus de travailler dur aux 50 tableaux que je voulais avoir avant de recauser de projets dans le genre comme on en a discuté cet hiver. Justement il y arrive une lettre de la maison.24
Tu sais je me sens tellement bien maintenant que pour la santé seulement il n’est pas indispensable que je reste ici. il faut faire de facon que tu ne sois pas absolument surchargé de frais, voilà ce qui est necessaire et c’est déjà grave assez.

translation
 1r:1
My dear Theo,
When in doubt, it’s better to abstain1 — that, I believe, is what I said in the letter to Gauguin, and that’s what I believe now, having read his reply.2 If he, for his part, returns to the proposal — he’s perfectly free to return to it — but we’d look I’m not quite sure what, if for the moment we pressed the point, to make him say yes.
You see that I’ve received your letter; I thank you very much for it and there were many things in it, I thank you very much for the 100-franc note — as for the delay with the telegram, it was dated Sunday,3 so it’s the postman’s fault, but it hardly mattered, since the coach for Saintes-Maries leaves every day.
But what stopped me was the need to buy canvases and pay the rent. I have already mentioned to you that I didn’t like Tasset’s canvas very much for outdoor work. In future I think we’ll take the ordinary kind.4 I bought 50 francs’ worth of canvas with stretching frames — also because I need stretching frames of different sizes to stretch canvases on, even though I’ll send them to you rolled up. They’re the rather large sizes, 30, 25, 20, 15, all square. It seems to me that the large sizes (after all, it’s not very large) suit me better.
But I speak about what you write in your letter. I congratulate you on having the Monet exhibition at your premises, and I much regret not seeing it.5 It will certainly do Tersteeg no harm to have seen this exhibition;6 he’ll still come round to it, but as your idea was too, very late. It’s indeed curious that he’s changed his mind on the subject of Zola. I know from experience that he couldn’t bear to hear him spoken about. What an odd character Tersteeg is; we shouldn’t give up hope with him — the splendid thing about him is that however rigid and fixed his opinions may be, once he has acknowledged that something is in fact different from what he had imagined — as with Zola — then he changes and becomes bold for the cause. Unfortunately, we don’t get to be old in modern times, and Mr Tersteeg has lived longer now than he still has to live. And where is his successor? My God, what a sad thing it is that you and he are not entirely as one in business matters these days. But what can you say — it’s what I believe they call a fatality.
You were fortunate to meet Guy de Maupassant7 — I’ve just read his first book, Des vers, poems dedicated to his master, Flaubert. There’s one, ‘Au bord de l’eau’, that’s already him.8 So you see, what Vermeer of Delft is beside Rembrandt among painters, he is among French novelists beside Zola.
In short, Tersteeg’s visit isn’t at all what I’d dared hope, and I make no secret of it to myself that I miscalculated the odds on his cooperating.
And perhaps on the business with Gauguin, too. Let’s take a look at that: I thought he was at bay and I blame myself for having money and the pal who works better than I, not — I say, he’s entitled to half if he wishes.
But — if Gauguin isn’t at bay, then I’m not in too much of a hurry.  1v:2
And I categorically withdraw from it, and the only question for me remains quite simply this: If I looked for a pal to work with, would I be doing the right thing, would this be more beneficial to my brother and me, would the pal lose or would he gain by it?
So these, then, are questions that certainly preoccupy me, but which need to come face to face with reality in order to become actual facts.
I don’t wish to discuss Gauguin’s plan,9 having considered the situation once — last winter — you know the results. You know that I believe that an association of the Impressionists would be something along the lines of the associations of the 12 English Pre-Raphaelites,10 and that I believe that it could come into being. That I’m therefore inclined to believe that the artists would guarantee their livelihood amongst themselves, mutually, and independently of the dealers, each agreeing to give a substantial number of paintings to the society, and that earnings as well as losses would be shared. I don’t believe that this society would last indefinitely, but I believe that during its lifetime we would live courageously and would produce. But if tomorrow Gauguin and his banker Jews come and ask me for nothing but 10 paintings for a society of dealers and not a society of artists, well, I don’t know if I’d trust them — I who would be glad, on the other hand, to give 50 to a society of artists.
Isn’t it a bit the way it was with Reid — why say that Gabriel de la Roquette’s a scoundrel if you do the same yourself?11 Why say artistic Society if it’s made up of bankers? Enough, for Heaven’s sake, let our pal do as his heart tells him, but his plan is far from making me enthusiastic.
I prefer things as they are — to take them the way it is, without changing anything about them, to half-baked reforms.
The great revolution, art for the artists, my God, perhaps it’s a utopia, and too bad, then.  1v:3 I think life’s so short and goes by so fast. Now, being a painter you have to paint, all the same.
And you’re also well aware that because at that time — last winter with Pissarro and the others, we happened to talk about it a lot, I’m now making a big effort to add nothing more except this, that speaking for myself, before next year I want to make my contribution of 50 paintings. If I manage to do that then I’ll stick to my opinion.
I’ve sent you 3 drawings by post today.12
The one with the wheat stacks in a farmyard will seem too bizarre to you, but it was done in great haste as a project for a painting, and it’s to show you what it’s like.13
Now, the harvest is a bit more serious. And that’s the subject I’ve been working on this week, on a no. 30 canvas14 — it’s hardly done at all — but it kills the rest of what I have, apart from a still life, worked on with patience.15 Macknight and one of his friends who’s been in Africa too16 saw this study today and said it was the best I’d done. Like Anquetin and our friend Thomas — you’re really not sure what to think of yourself when you hear people say that, but I say to myself: the rest must look bloody awful, to be sure.
Well then — on days when I bring back a study I say to myself, if it was like this every day things could work — but on days when you come home empty-handed and you eat and spend money all the same, you don’t feel content with yourself, and you feel like a madman, a scoundrel or an old fool.
And dear old Doctor Ox, I mean our Swede, Mourier,17 I liked him well enough because, with his spectacles, he went naїvely and benignly about this wicked world, and because I presumed he had a heart that was purer than many a heart, and even with more of a leaning towards rectitude than many of the cleverest people have. And as I knew he hadn’t been painting for very long it made not a bit of difference to me that his work was the very height of inanity. And I saw him every day for months. All right. So what can be the reason for his losing his qualities? This is how I imagine the case to be. Bear in mind that he came to the south to get over a nervous disorder caused by a whole lot of problems he’s had, and as a result of which he changed career.18  1r:4
He was perfectly well here, he was very calm, &c. But the shock of Paris was too great, the change too sudden, he didn’t find the Paris of his dreams, and there he is, worried and perhaps disagreeable, and in any case doing silly things.
He’ll soon have sown his wild oats, I hope. While waiting, let him do whatever he likes without attaching any importance to it. He’s placing huge hopes in Russell (I believe), he’s looking for an adviser and a teacher — now — no need to tell you that Russell will perhaps not be everything he needs, but I believe that Russell will see that he’s someone who doesn’t know the circles of people with whom he’s dealing, and I think that Russell will take him seriously and will try to be good for him. I believe that Russell is making a name for himself among those who have an instinctive fear of Paris. It’s hard to explain what I mean by that.
Russell is such a good man19 — but you know, you can’t recommend that people love Paris, or force them to, any more than you can recommend a pipe or black coffee with cognac. And Russell’s rich and has lost money in Paris, so he can and does say to people: ‘see what I’ve had to deal with’.20 But in any event, I’ll write a word to Russell.
It seems that Macknight wasn’t very pleased with me but that Russell indicated to him in reply that he should shut up. All this to tell you I understand very, very well — seeing he has turned out like that — that you’re not in complete agreement with the Swede, who probably, according to what you write, has had a recurrence of his nervous trouble and is irritated by Paris. If he has money to waste in taking a studio like Gérôme’s,21 it would be serious. As I’m slightly doubtful that he has a huge amount to waste, he’s in for a bit of a drubbing that’s not undeserved, I’d say. There’s nothing to be done if he won’t listen, but you can’t live with him. I won’t write to Gauguin direct — I’ll send you the letter — because when in doubt, it’s better to abstain. IF WE SAY NO MORE, if the reply shows we’ve said something like that but that there has to be an initiative in the matter from his side too, then we’ll see if he’s keen on it. If he isn’t keen on it, if it’s all one to him, if he has something quite different in mind, let him remain independent, and me too.
Handshake to you and to Mourier.

Ever yours,
Vincent

I find this in particular rather strange in this plan of Gauguin’s: the society offers its protection in exchange for 10 paintings that the artists will have to give, if ten artists do that, the Jewish company clearly pockets 100 paintings ‘for a start’. The protection of this society that doesn’t even exist costs a lot of money.

 2r:5
Here’s the letter for Gauguin — I’m well aware that in his there is this passage ‘I ask (underlined) if, the capital having been raised for the most part, your brother would use his efforts to make a success of the business and to be its director’. I’m well aware that he also writes, ‘I accept your proposal in principle’. But I believe that it could lead us too far if we weren’t a little firm in showing him that our proposal was without all these afterthoughts, and that we ourselves are too hard up to be able to risk anything other than setting up house together and sharing the month’s money.
And it’s true I didn’t know he had so large a family; he’ll more likely wish to stay in the north for that reason.22
The most radical thing we could do would be for me to give up the south, and if that would get him out of trouble, go and join him in Brittany myself. And the desire I have to work in the south is naturally subordinate to the interests of people like him.
All the same, we shouldn’t change lightly.
And I’m a little afraid of getting a dressing-down for having separated him from his family, or a hornet’s nest like that.
Dear God, if he has such a large family his obligations are probably not to be absent from them any more. And perhaps he’d be much happier if you simply bought a painting from him from time to time.  2v:6
If now I haven’t mentioned these two passages and other passages in his letter it’s because it seems far too difficult to me to say yes to that in all honesty. However, if it was the case that his whole plan is nothing but a fata Morgana, and as such will vanish, he’ll speak of it again of his own accord.
But there’s the fare, the debt at the inn, the doctor’s bill; now he’s talking about another debt of 300 francs which he’ll settle with that painting if his collector agrees.23 But if he doesn’t agree? Well now, it wouldn’t be very prudent to give him hopes beyond our resources and commit ourselves to doing more than we could stick to. It’s all very well for Gauguin to say, he’s very very upset and it’s a pity, and it can’t be good for his work. No, we shouldn’t change what we’ve said and consider that the thing isn’t going ahead because of doubts and changes whose presence isn’t a good sign. The more I calm myself here and the more I regain my strength, the more I feel that work is the most secure thing.
I admit that if living in Brittany is much less expensive, if necessary I must sacrifice my plan to work here, and I’ll do it willingly if it’s to his benefit. But all the more reason to work hard on the 50 paintings I wished to have before talking again about projects of the kind we discussed last winter. A letter from home arrives just now.24
You know I feel so well now that it isn’t indispensable that I stay here for my health alone. We have to act so that you aren’t completely overwhelmed by expenses, that’s what’s necessary and that’s serious enough in itself.
notes
1. For this expression see letter 621, n. 3.
2. From the rest of the letter it can be deduced that Theo had sent Gauguin’s reply to ‘the more clear-cut proposal’ (see letters 621 and 623) to Vincent. Gauguin wrote about it to Emile Schuffenecker: ‘I almost said yes’ (j’ai répondu presque oui). See Merlhès 1989, p. 68. Later in the present letter it transpires that Gauguin had an alternative plan for a society of artists headed by Theo.
3. Theo had wired 50 francs on Sunday, 10 June (623).
4. Van Gogh had discussed the quality of Tasset’s canvas in letters 610 and 621. See for Tasset’s standard canvas, on which Van Gogh also worked in Saint-Rémy: Hendriks and Van Tilborgh 2001, pp. 150-151.
5. In June-July 1888 Theo staged an exhibition of ten landscapes which Monet had painted in Antibes (on the Mediterranean coast near Cannes). Theo bought them for 11,900 francs and contracted to pay Monet 50 percent of the resale profit. See exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1999, p. 111; the invitation has survived (FR b1497). La Revue Indépendante, vol. 8 (juillet 1888), no. 21, p. 154 reviewed it, but Theo was not really happy with the article. See Wildenstein 1996, vol. 1, pp. 241-244, and cat. nos. 1158?, 1167, 1171, 1175, 1179, 1181, 1187, 1191, 1192?, 1193, and Correspondance Pissarro 1980-1991, vol. 2, p. 239.
6. Tersteeg was originally going to go to Paris in May (letter 589); from the present letter, however, it emerges that his visit actually took place in the first half of June.
7. In letter 628 Van Gogh says that Maupassant had been to the Monet exhibition. Theo must have met him on that occasion.
8. ‘Au bord de l’eau’ is an erotic poem about a young couple who enjoy intense physical love, heedlessly at first; later, though, they realize that they are ‘afflicted by the sort of love one dies from / and that [their] life drained away through all [their] senses’ (frappés de l’amour dont on meurt / et que par tous [leurs] sens s’écoulait [leur] vie). From that moment on they surrender utterly to the ‘fatal coupling’ (accouplement mortel), knowing that in so doing they are hastening their deaths. See Des vers. Paris 1880, pp. 41-57. The poem caused an uproar; Flaubert had to offer his pupil protection. This incident meant that Maupassant’s name became widely known.
Des vers is dedicated: ‘To Gustave Flaubert / to the famous and paternal friend / for whom I feel great affection, / to the perfect master / whom I admire above all others’ (A Gustave Flaubert / à l’illustre et paternel ami / que j’aime de toute ma tendresse, / à l’irréprochable maître / que j’admire avant tous). This is followed by a letter from Flaubert, dated 19 February 1880. In this letter he puts heart into the young author, asserting that many great writers suffered from the narrow-mindedness of the public: ‘Earth has its limits, but there is no end to human stupidity’ (La terre a des limites, mais la bêtise humaine est infinie.)
9. See letter 623, n. 4 for Gauguin’s plan. Van Gogh’s reference to Jewish bankers later in the letter probably relates to Gauguin’s backers, Henri Cottu and Albert Dauprat. Cottu was a director of the Compagnie du Canal de Panama, and Dauprat was a sociologist associated with the magazine La Science Sociale. See Wildenstein 2001, p. 606.
10. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English artists with religious-mystical tendencies, founded in 1848 by seven young artists and critics, among them Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Their work harked back to Raphael’s predecessors. The group split up quite quickly because the founders chose different artistic directions. We do not know where Van Gogh got the figure of 12 artists.
11. Van Gogh means Gabriel Delarebeyrette, a Parisian art dealer who dealt primarily in Monticelli’s work. See letter 600, n. 14, for the nickname ‘La Roquette’.
Van Gogh accused Reid of being too interested in his own gain (letter 589) and too little concerned with the artists’ interests; his remark that Reid did the same thing as Gabriel Delarebeyrette may relate to this.
12. As well as the two drawings mentioned below, this consignment probably included Farmhouse (F 1478 / JH 1444 ). See letter 623, n. 10.
13. The drawing Wheat stacks (F 1425 / JH 1441 ) served as a study for the painting Wheat stacks (F 425 / JH 1442 ).
14. Vincent must have sent Theo the drawing The harvest (F 1483 / JH 1439 ). Shortly afterwards he sent the other drawing of the same subject, The harvest (F 1484 / JH 1438 ), to his sister Willemien (see letter 626). The no. 30 canvas is The harvest (F 412 / JH 1440 ).
15. Still life with coffee pot (F 410 / JH 1426 ).
16. This friend was the Belgian painter Eugène Boch, whom Macknight invited to join him in Fontvieille in a letter of 19 April 1888. We do not know exactly when he arrived. He went back to Belgium via Paris on 4 September 1888 (see letters 674 and 693). Boch first went to Algeria in 1886 and subsequently went back several times. See exhib. cat. Saarbrücken 1971, p. 48.
Macknight left Paris in the spring of 1886. He headed first for the south of France and later that year for the Algerian oasis of Ghardaia. See Bailey 2007, p. 30.
17. Van Gogh often mistook the nationality of the Danish painter Mourier-Petersen.
Jules Verne’s Le docteur Ox (1874) is part of the series ‘Voyages extraordinaires’. It is a comic tale set in an imaginary Flemish village and the central character is Doctor Ox, a generous, passionate and reckless man.
18. See for Mourier-Petersen’s ‘nervous disorder’: letter 610, n. 3.
19. After ‘bon’ (good) Van Gogh crossed out ‘pour autant que je le connais’ (as far as I know him).
20. A legacy had made it possible for Russell to devote himself exclusively to art since 1879-1880. See Galbally 1977, p. 3. Whether and, if so, what Russell lost money on in Paris has not been discovered.
21. Van Gogh means a large, luxurious studio with exotic attributes. See for Gérôme’s studio: Ackerman 1986.
22. Gauguin married a Danish woman, Mette Gad, in Paris on 22 November 1873; they had five children. In November 1884 the family went to live in Copenhagen, but Gauguin could not settle there and went back to Paris in June 1885.
23. Gauguin wrote in a letter to Theo that he owed the stockbroker Eugène Mirtil 300 francs and that he had offered him one of the paintings that Theo had on commission (GAC 3). We learn from two subsequent letters from Gauguin to Theo that Mirtil did indeed accept a painting in settlement (GAC 5 and GAC 7).
24. Willemien and Mrs van Gogh had written: see letter 626.