734 Paul Gauguin to Vincent van Gogh. Paris, between Tuesday, 8 and Wednesday, 16 January 1889.

metadata

No. 734 (Brieven 1990 739, Complete Letters GAC 34)
From: Paul Gauguin
To: Vincent van Gogh
Date: Paris, between Tuesday, 8 and Wednesday, 16 January 1889

Source status

Original manuscript

Location

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b857 V/1962

Date

In letter 736 of 17 January, Van Gogh refers to the present letter, which means that it was written at the latest on Wednesday, 16 January 1889. At the earliest it could date from Tuesday, 8 January, because on the 9th Van Gogh did not mention having received a reply from Gauguin (see letter 735). We have therefore dated the letter to some time between Tuesday, 8 and Wednesday, 16 January 1889.

Additional

The letter has no salutation and is thus incomplete.

original text

1r:1

[The letter has no salutation]

vos tournesols sur fond jaune1 que je considère comme une page parfaite d’un style essentiellement Vincent. j’ai vu chez votre frère votre Semeur2 qui est très-bien ainsi qu’une nature morte jaune, pommes et citrons.3 votre frère m’a donné une reproduction lithographiée d’un ancien tableau de vous, hollandais – tres intéressant comme couleur dans le dessin.4 Dans mon atelier5 à côté de votre portrait.6

Les vendanges7 sont en totalité écaillées par suite du blanc qui s’est separé.– Je l’ai recollée totalement par un 1r:2 procedé indiqué par le reentoileur.8 Si je vous en parle c’est que la chose est facile à faire et peut être très bonne pour vos toiles à retoucher – vous collez des journeaux sur votre toile avec de la colle de pâte. Une fois secs vous mettez votre toile sur une planche lisse et avec des fers à repasser très chauds vous appuyez dur dessus.– Tous vos accrocs de couleur resteront mais seront applatis et vous aurez une surface très belle.– Après vous trempez bien votre dessus de papier et enlevez tout le papier.

Voilà en grande partie tout le secret du reentoilage.–

1v:3

Merci à Roulin d’avoir pensé à moi. J’ai bien reçu mes clefs9 – à la prochaine occasion si vous pouvez m’envoyer par colis postal mes 2 masques et gants d’armes10 que j’ai laissés dans le petit cabinet d’en haut sur la planche.–

mes amitiés à tout le monde.–

Cordialement à vous

Paul Gauguin

chez M^r Schuffenecker

29 Rue Boulard –

translation

1r:1

[The letter has no salutation]

your sunflowers on a yellow background1 which I regard as a perfect page of an essential ‘Vincent’ style. At your brother’s home I saw your Sower,2 which is very good, as well as a yellow still life, apples and lemons.3 Your brother gave me a lithographed reproduction of an old painting of yours, Dutch – very interesting as regards colour in the drawing.4 In my studio5 next to your portrait.6

The grape harvests7 are totally covered in scales as a result of the white which has separated. I’ve stuck all of it back down using 1r:2 a process shown to me by the reliner.8 If I tell you about it it’s because the thing is easy to do and can be very good for those of your canvases that need retouching – you stick newspapers on your canvas with flour paste. Once dry, you put your canvas on a smooth board and with very hot irons you press down hard on it. All the breaks in your colour will remain but will be flattened down and you’ll have a very fine surface. Afterwards you soak your paper covering well and take off all the paper.

That’s largely the whole secret of relining. 1v:3

Thank Roulin for thinking of me. I have indeed received my stretcher keys9 – at the next opportunity if you can send me by parcel post my 2 fencing masks and gloves,10 which I left on the shelf in the little upstairs room.

Friendly wishes from me to everyone.

Cordially yours,

Paul Gauguin

At Mr Schuffenecker’s

29 rue Boulard –

notes

1. Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562 ). See Van Tilborgh and Hendriks 2001, p. 21. It emerges from letter 736 that Gauguin wanted this canvas; he must have asked for it in the missing part of the present letter. Van Gogh’s answer to the present letter has not survived, but that he did indeed reply is apparent from Gauguin’s letter 737).

2. Sower with setting sun (F 422 / JH 1470 ); the other canvases with sowers were still in Arles.

3. Quinces, lemons, pears and grapes (F 383 / JH 1339 ).

4. The lithograph The potato eaters (F 1661 / JH 737 ) after the painting The potato eaters (F 82 / JH 764 ).

5. On 5 January Gauguin had rented a studio at 16 rue Saint-Gothard. See exhib. cat. Washington 1988, p. 46.

6. Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581 ).

7. Regarding Gauguin’s Human miseries , see letter 717, n. 2.

8. The identity of this reliner is not known. This could refer to Contet, who in 1886 had taken over the business of Mrs Latouche; in any case, Gauguin had had canvases relined there in 1883. See letter 776, n. 30.

9. It is possible that with ‘clefs’ Gauguin meant the wedges used to tension a stretcher, but he could also have meant the stretchers themselves (‘chassis à clefs’).

10. Gauguin practised fencing and had given fencing lessons in Pont-Aven. In Avant et après he writes in detail on the art of fencing, boasting about his talent for it. See Gauguin 1923, pp. 188-196.