703 (708, 552): To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Saturday, 13 October 1888.

My dear Theo,

I had hardly dared hope so soon for your new 50-franc money order, for which I thank you very much.

I have many expenses, and it sometimes distresses me greatly when I increasingly come to realize that painting is a craft that is probably practised by extremely poor people, since it costs a lot of money.

But the autumn still continues to be so fine! What a funny part of the country, this homeland of Tartarin’s! Yes, I’m happy with my lot; it isn’t a superb and sublime country, it’s all something out of Daumier come to life. Have you re-read the Tartarins yet? Ah, don’t forget to! Do you remember in Tartarin the lament of the old Tarascon diligence — that wonderful page?1 Well, I’ve just painted that red and green carriage in the yard of the inn. You’ll see.

[sketch A]

1v:2

This hasty croquis gives you its composition.

Simple foreground of grey sand.

Background very simple too, pink and yellow walls with windows with green louvred shutters, corner of blue sky.

The two carriages very colourful: green, red, wheels yellow, black, blue, orange. A no. 30 canvas once again.2 The carriages are painted in the style of Monticelli, with impastos. You once had a very beautiful Claude Monet, of 4 colourful boats on a beach.3 Well, here it’s carriages, but the composition is of the same kind.

Now imagine a huge green-blue fir tree spreading its horizontal branches over a very green lawn and sand dappled with light and shade.

[sketch B]

This very simple corner of a garden is enlivened by beds of orange lead geraniums in the background areas, under the black branches. Two figures of lovers stand in the shade of the big tree. No. 30 canvas.4 2r:3

And then two more no. 30 canvases, the Trinquetaille bridge and another bridge; the railway goes over the road.5

[sketch C]

That canvas is a little like a Bosboom in coloration.6

[sketch D]

2v:4

Lastly, the Trinquetaille bridge with all its steps is a canvas done on a grey morning, the stones, the asphalt, the cobblestones are grey, the sky a pale blue, the small figures colourful, a puny tree with yellow foliage. Two canvases, then, in grey, broken tones, and two highly coloured canvases.

Forgive these very poor croquis.

I’m knocked out from painting this Tarascon diligence, and I can see that I haven’t a head fit for drawing. I’m off to have supper, and I’ll write to you again this evening.

But this decoration is coming along a bit, and I believe that it will broaden my way of seeing and doing things.

It will be open to a thousand criticisms; very well, but never mind, as long as I manage to put some spirit into it.

But yes, good old Tartarin’s country, I’m enjoying myself there more and more, and it will become like a new homeland for us. I don’t forget Holland, though; it’s precisely the contrasts that make me think of it a lot. I’ll get back to this letter shortly.

3r:5

Now I’m getting back to this letter again. How I’d like to be able to show you the work that’s in progress!

I’m really so tired that I can see that my writing isn’t up to much.

I’ll write to you better another time, because it’s beginning to take shape now, this idea of the decoration.

I wrote to Gauguin again the day before yesterday, to say once again that he would probably recover much more quickly here.7

And he’ll do such fine things here.

He’ll need time to recover. I assure you that I believe that if ideas for work are coming to me more clearly and more abundantly at present, then eating good food has a lot to do with it. And that’s what everybody in painting should have.

How many things that still have to change! Isn’t it true that all painters ought to live like manual workers? A carpenter, a blacksmith, normally produces infinitely more than they do. In painting too, there should be large studios where each person would work more steadily. 3v:6

I’m really falling asleep standing up, and I can’t see any longer, my eyes are so tired.

More soon, because I still had lots of things to say, and I should make you some better croquis. Probable that I’ll do it tomorrow.

Thank you many times again for your money order. I shake your hand firmly.

Ever yours,

Vincent

It’s 5 canvases that I’ve started on this week;8 that brings, I believe, to 15 the number of these no. 30 canvases for the decoration.

2	canvases of	sunflowers9
3	,,	poet’s garden10
2	,,	other garden11
1	,,	Night café12
1	,,	Trinquetaille bridge13
1	,,	Railway bridge14
1	,,	the house15
1	,,	the Tarascon diligence16
1	,,	the starry night17
1	,,	the furrows18
1	,,	The vineyard.19

703 | Show metadata

Br. 1990: 708 | CL: 552
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Arles, Saturday, 13 October 1888
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1. See letter 583, n. 9, for Alphonse Daudet’s Tartarin de Tarascon (1872) and Tartarin sur les Alpes (1885). Van Gogh’s comment relates to the chapter titled ‘Les diligences déportées’ in Tartarin de Tarascon, in which the ‘old diligence’ speaks and complains about its hard life. See Daudet 1986-1994, vol. 1, pp. 531-533 (3rd episode, chapter 1).

2. The letter sketch The Tarascon diligence (F - / JH 1606) is after the painting of the same title, F 478a / JH 1605

. At that time the coaches for Tarascon left from the Auberge de la Poste (according to Le Forum Républicain of 28 October 1888 (front page)). This inn was at 7 rue Marché-Neuf (L’indicateur arlésien 1887, p. 26).

3. We do not know which Monet painting of four boats Theo had in the gallery. It has been suggested in the past that this was Boats on the beach, Etretat, 1885 (The Art Institute of Chicago), but the composition of this work is not ‘of the same kind’ as the carriages in Van Gogh’s painting. It seems more likely to have been Fishing boats, 1885 (private collection). It is not known whether either of these paintings was ever at Boussod, Valadon & Cie. See Wildenstein 1996, cat. nos. 1024, 1028.

4. The letter sketch The public garden with a couple strolling (‘The poet’s garden’) (F - / JH 1602) is after the painting of the same title, F 479 / JH 1601

5. The letter sketch The Trinquetaille bridge (F - / JH 1607) is after the painting of the same title, F 481 / JH 1604

. This bridge connected the centre of Arles to the suburb of Trinquetaille on the other side of the Rhône.

6. The letter sketch The viaduct (F - / JH 1607) after the painting of the same title, F 480 / JH 1603

. The ‘other bridge’ was the railway bridge that carried the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée line over avenue de Montmajour, the street that led into place Lamartine.

a. Read: ‘justement’.

7. Vincent had sent Theo a ‘copy’ of his letter to Gauguin on 10 October (see letter 701).

8. The first work of the week was Entrance to the public garden (F 566 / JH 1585

); see letter 701. The other four are the works referred to above (nn. 2 and 4 -6).

9. Sunflowers in a vase (F 456 / JH 1561

) and Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562

10. On 8 October (see letter 699) Van Gogh had two paintings of the ‘poet’s garden’: The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578

) and a painting of the park that is now lost (cf. the drawing The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 1465 / JH 1583) and the letter sketch in letter 693 for the composition). After this he painted two more views of the park: Entrance to the public garden (F 566 / JH 1585

) and The public garden with a couple strolling (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 479 / JH 1601

). In the light of the description of the latter canvas in the present letter, that is to say as a garden with lovers, this must have been the third ‘poet’s garden’. In letter 709 he says he is working on a fourth one. See exhib. cat. New York 1984, pp. 183-184 and Dorn 1990, pp. 270 (n. 216), 394-395.