Back to site

767 To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Thursday, 2 May 1889.

metadata
No. 767 (Brieven 1990 770, Complete Letters 589)
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Arles, Thursday, 2 May 1889

Source status
Original manuscript

Location
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b636 V/1962

Date
In letter 765 of 30 April, Van Gogh wrote that he was busy packing up his paintings; now he mentions having sent two crates (ll. 1*-2). He also says: ‘It has been very hot today’ (l. 121). On Thursday, 2 May it was relatively warm: on 1 May it had been only 16.5 degrees, whereas on 2 May the temperature rose to 19.4 (Météo-France). Vincent has clearly not yet received Theo’s letter of 2 May (letter 766), containing his reaction to Vincent’s plans to join the Foreign Legion. For these reasons we have dated the letter to Thursday, 2 May 1889. This date was also ascribed to the letter by Jo van Gogh-Bonger in Brieven1914, and it is possible that she had a postmark to rely on.

Ongoing topics
Vincent’s first crisis and hospitalization (728)
Vincent’s plan to join the Foreign Legion (763)
Decision regarding Vincent’s admission to the asylum at Saint-Rémy (760)

original text
 1r:1
Mon cher Theo,
de ces jours-ci j’ai expédié deux caisses de toiles. D 58 & 59 – par petite vitesse & cela prendra bien une huitaine de jours encore avant que tu les reçoives.–1 Il y a un tas de croutes dedans qu’il faudra détruire mais je les ai envoyés tel quels afin que tu pourras garder ce qui te paraitrait être passable. J’y ai ajouté des masques d’escrime et des études à Gauguin2 et le livre de Lemonnier.3
Ayant pris la précaution de payer 30 francs à l’euconome4 en avance je suis naturellement ici encore – mais on ne saurait m’y garder indéfiniment et il est plus que temps de se decider. Songes y bien qu’en m’internant dans un asile cela coûtera cher à la longue quoique moins probablement que de reprendre une maison – recommencer à vivre seul d’ailleurs me fait absolument horreur.– J’aimerais à m’engager; ce que je crains ici c’est – mon accident étant connu ici en ville – qu’on me refuse – mais ce que je redoute ainsi ou plutôt ce qui me rend timide c’est la possibilité, la probabilité ici d’un refus. Si j’avais quelque connaissance qui pourrait me coller pour cinq ans dans la legion j’irais.
Seulement je ne veux pas que ce soit considéré comme un nouvel acte de folie de ma part et c’est pourquoi je t’en cause ainsi qu’à m. Salles pour qu’en y allant cela soit en toute serenité et reflexion faite.
 1v:2
Car songes y bien, continuer à depenser de l’argent dans cette peinture alors que les choses pourraient en venir là qu’on manquerait d’argent de ménage, c’est atroce et tu sais assez que la chance de réussir est abominable. D’ailleurs cela m’a tant frappé que c’est une telle force majeure qui m’aie contrariée.– D’ailleurs dans l’avenir il y aurait possiblement encore les soeurs pour lesquelles il faudrait chercher à prévoir.5 Peut etre – dis-je – mais enfin quoi qu’il en soit: Si je savais qu’on m’accepterait j’y irais à la legion. C’est que je suis devenu timide et hesitant depuis, je vis comme machinalement.
Cependant la santé va fort bien et je travaille un peu. j’ai en train une allée de maronniers à fleurs roses avec un petit cérisier en fleur et une plante de glycine et le sentier du parc tâcheté de soleil et d’ombre.6
Cela fera pendant au jardin qui est dans le cadre en noyer.7
Si je te parle de m’engager pour cinq ans ne vas pas songer que je fasse cela dans une idée de me sacrifier ou de bien faire. Je suis “mal pris” dans la vie et mon etat mental est non seulement mais a été aussi – abstraita.–
 1v:3
de façon que quoi qu’on ferait pour moi je ne peux pas réflechir à équilibrer ma vie. Là où je dois suivre une règle comme ici à l’hospice je me sens plus tranquille. Et dans le service ce serait plus ou moins la même chôse. Maintenant si certes ici je risque fort d’être refusé parcequ’ils savent que je suis aliéné ou épileptique probablement pour de bon (quoique à ce que j’ai entendu dire il y ait 50 mille epileptiques en France dont 4000 seulement internés et qu’ainsi c’est pas si extraordinaire) peutêtre que à Paris en le disant par ex. à Detaille ou Caran Dache je serais vite casé.–8 Ce serait pas plus un coup de tête qu’autre chôse – enfin – réfléchissons – mais pour agir.–
En attendant je fais ce que je peux et pour travailler à n’importe quoi, peinture compris, j’ai passablement de la bonne volonté. Mais l’argent que coute la peinture cela m’écrase sous un sentiment de dette et de lâcheté et il serait bon que cela cesse si possible.
D’ailleurs j’ai dit une fois pour de bon, mieux vaut qu’à present s’il y a un parti à prendre que toi et M. Salles décident pour moi. Et sache le bien, je ne refuse rien, pas même d’aller à St Remy malgré ces obstacles de pension plus elevée que d’abord on esperait9 et de ne pas avoir complète liberté de sortir dehors pour peindre. Il faudra bien se décider car on ne peut pas indefiniment me garder ici.
 1r:4
Je disais à l’euconome que j’etais content de payer ici par exemple 60 francs au lieu de 45 si je pourrais indéfiniment y rester mais leur règlement est à prix fixe parait-il. Quoique donc jusqu’à présent à moi on n’aie rien dit, je crois qu’il serait juste de s’en aller. Je pourrais peutêtre aller de nouveau loger dans le café de nuit où j’ai remisé mes meubles10 mais... journellement on est en contact alors juste avec mes voisins d’il y a quelque temps car c’est à côté de la maison où j’avais mon atelier.
Dans la ville cependant à présent on ne me dit plus rien et je peins actuellement dans le jardin public sans être beaucoup gêné autrement que par de la curiosité des passants.11
J’ai relu l’article sur Monet du Figaro12 et il me parait maintenant beaucoup mieux que d’abord.
Pour les choses materielles ne nous decourageons pas trop mais tâchons au moins d’etre raisonnables là-dedans. C’est toujours bon qu’à la rigueur je pourrai aller loger dans ce café de nuit ici et même y être en pension car ces gens sont de mes amis – naturellement aussi parcequ’on a été et est leur client. Il a fait tres chaud aujourd’hui ce qui me fait toujours du bien. j’ai travaille avec plus d’entrain qu’il m’etait encore arrivé.
Je te serre bien la main à toi ainsi qu’à ta femme.

t. à t.
Vincent

translation
 1r:1
My dear Theo,
I recently sent off two crates of canvases. D58 and 59 – by goods train, and it will take a good week more before you receive them.1 There’s a heap of daubs in there which will have to be destroyed, but I’ve sent them as they are so that you can keep what appears passable to you. I’ve added Gauguin’s fencing masks and studies,2 and the Lemonnier book.3
Having taken the precaution of paying 30 francs to the bursar4 in advance I am naturally still here – but they wouldn’t be able to keep me here indefinitely and it’s more than time to decide. Bear in mind that by confining me in an asylum it will cost a lot in the long run, although less probably than taking another house – besides, beginning to live alone again absolutely horrifies me. I would like to enlist; what I fear here is – my accident being known here in town – that I will be turned down – but what I dread, or rather what makes me timid, is the possibility, the probability here of a rejection. If I had some acquaintance who could stick me in the legion for five years I would go.
Only I don’t want that to be considered as a new act of madness on my part, and that’s why I’m talking to you about it as well as to Mr Salles, so that if I go it will be in all serenity and after due consideration.  1v:2
For bear it firmly in mind, continuing to spend money on this painting when things could come to the point where there was a lack of money for housekeeping, that’s atrocious, and you’re sufficiently aware that the chance of succeeding is abominable. Besides, it has struck me so much that it’s such a force majeure that has frustrated me. Besides, in the future there would possibly be our sisters too for whom we should try to provide.5 Perhaps – I say – but anyway, whatever the case: if I knew that I would be accepted I would go to the legion. It’s that I’ve become timid and hesitant since, I live like a machine.
However, my health is very good and I’m working a little. I have on the go an avenue of chestnut trees with pink flowers with a little cherry tree in flower and a wisteria plant and the path in the park flecked with sunlight and shade.6
It will make a pendant to the garden that’s in the walnut frame.7
If I speak to you of enlisting for five years don’t go and think that I’m doing it with an idea of sacrificing myself or doing good. I’m ‘in a hole’ in life, and my mental state not only is but also has been – distracted.  1v:3
So that whatever might be done for me I can’t think of a way of balancing my life. Where I must follow a rule, like here at the hospital, I feel more tranquil. And in the armed forces it would be more or less the same thing. Now if here I certainly run a strong risk of being rejected because they know that I’m a madman or an epileptic, probably for good (although from what I’ve heard tell there are 50 thousand epileptics in France, of whom only 4,000 are confined, and that it’s thus not so extraordinary), perhaps in Paris by telling it for example to Detaille or Caran d’Ache I would soon be found a place.8 It would be no more of an impulse than anything else – anyway – let’s think about it – but in order to act.
In the meantime I’m doing what I can, and I have a fair bit of good will to work at anything, painting included. But the money that painting costs, that crushes me under a feeling of debt and of cowardice, and it would be good for that to stop if possible.
Besides, I’ve said once and for all, better if there’s a decision to be made at present that you and Mr Salles decide for me. And be well aware, I won’t refuse anything, not even going to St-Rémy, despite these obstacles of the cost of board and lodging being higher than we hoped at first,9 and not having complete freedom to go outside to paint. We must decide anyway, for they can’t keep me here indefinitely.  1r:4
I was saying to the bursar that I was happy to pay for example 60 francs here instead of 45 if I could stay here indefinitely, but their rule is fixed price, it appears. So, although no one has said anything to me up to now, I think it would be right to leave. I could perhaps go again to lodge at the night café where I’ve stored my furniture,10 but... then I’m in daily contact with my very neighbours from a while ago, for it’s beside the house where I had my studio.
In the town, though, at present nobody says anything to me any more, and I’m currently painting in the public garden without being disturbed much other than by the curiosity of passers-by.11
I’ve re-read the article on Monet from Le Figaro12 and it now appears much better to me than at first.
As regards material things, let’s not become too discouraged but let’s try at least to be sensible about them. It’s still good that if necessary I can go and lodge in that night café here, and even board there, for those people are friends of mine – naturally also because I have been and am their customer. It has been very hot today, which always does me good. I’ve worked with more gusto than I had yet had.
I give you a hearty handshake, you and your wife.

Ever yours,
Vincent
notes
1. This consignment can be largely reconstructed. Van Gogh wrote in letter 765 that the following works from the consignment should be put on stretching frames: The night café (F 463 / JH 1575 ), The green vineyard (F 475 / JH 1595 ), The red vineyard (F 495 / JH 1626 ), The bedroom (F 482 / JH 1608 ), Ploughed fields (‘The furrows’) (F 574 / JH 1586 ), Ploughed field with a tree-trunk (‘The furrows’) (F 573 / JH 1618 ), Eugène Boch (‘The poet’) (F 462 / JH 1574 ), The Alyscamps (‘Leaf-fall’) (F 486 / JH 1620 ), The Alyscamps (‘Leaf-fall’) (F 487 / JH 1621 ), ‘the poet’s garden’, The public garden with a couple strolling (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 479 / JH 1601 ), Sunflowers in a vase (F 455 / JH 1668 ), Sunflowers in a vase (F 457 / JH 1666 ), ‘Scabious &c’ and ‘asters and marigolds’ (possibly Zinnias in a majolica jug (F 592 / JH 1568 ); see letter 765, n. 34). In the present letter Van Gogh mentions a ‘garden that’s in the walnut frame’ (l. 52), so that painting, The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578 ) (see n. 7 below) was also in the consignment (cf. also letter 777).
The consignment contained four versions of Augustine Roulin (‘La berceuse’), namely F 504 / JH 1655 , F 506 / JH 1670 , F 507 / JH 1672 and F 508 / JH 1671 , as well as Joseph Roulin (F 436 / JH 1675 ), Sower with setting sun (F 450 / JH 1627 ), Marcelle Roulin (F 441 / JH 1641 ), Starry night over the Rhône (F 474 / JH 1592 ) and Van Gogh’s chair (F 498 / JH 1635 ). See letter 774. It is likely that Gauguin’s chair (F 499 / JH 1636 ) was sent together with its pendant F 498 (cf. letter 736). In addition to the two previously mentioned canvases with sunflowers, the consignment must also have contained F 456 / JH 1561 , F 454 / JH 1562 , F 453 / JH 1559 , F 459 / JH 1560 and F 458 / JH 1667 . See letter 774, n. 7. Marie Ginoux (‘The Arlésienne’) (F 489 / JH 1625 ) was also in the batch; see letter 768, n. 26.
It may be deduced from letter 796, written by Roulin, that Theo had received the portraits of all the members of the family, so Armand Roulin (F 493 / JH 1643 ) and Camille Roulin (F 538 / JH 1645 ), both of which have Theo van Gogh as their provenance, were probably also in the consignment. A comparison of Young man with a cap (F 536 / JH 1648) with the two portraits F 492 / JH 1642 and F 493 / JH 1643 suggests that this, too, is a portrait of Armand Roulin. Its provenance, anyway, is from Theo, so it would have been part of this consignment (see Account book 2002, p. 177).
It emerges from letter 827 that the watercolour Breton women in the meadow (after Emile Bernard) (F 1422 / JH 1654 ) was also at Theo’s; it must have been in this last consignment from Arles.
2. Regarding these studies left behind by Gauguin, see letter 736, n. 12. Gauguin had asked Van Gogh in letter 734 to send his fencing masks and gloves.
3. For Lemonnier’s Ceux de la glèbe, see letter 752, n. 4.
4. Read: ‘l’économe’ (bursar). Marius Huard fulfilled this function at the hospital in Arles (L’indicateur marseillais 1889).
5. Vincent is referring to Willemien and Elisabeth; Anna, the eldest of the three sisters, was already married.
6. Avenue of chestnut trees in blossom (F 517 / JH 1689 ).
7. This painting of the park was probably The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578 ). According to Dorn it was Entrance to the public garden (F 566 / JH 1585 ). See Dorn 1990, pp. 189, 438. Unlike that work, however, we know that F 468 definitely had a walnut frame (see letter 699; cf. also letter 673, n. 16). It is also more likely that Van Gogh, who was very keen on contrasts when choosing pendants, selected a painting of the ‘poet’s garden’ to pair with F 517 , and not F 566, which shows the same area of the park as in F 517 in an almost identical composition.
a. Read: ‘distrait’.
8. Van Gogh links these two artists to the Foreign Legion, because both had painted military scenes. Edouard Detaille made military history paintings; the caricaturist Caran d’Ache (the pseudonym of Emmanuel Poiré) had become known in 1886 for his designs for the shadow play ‘L’épopée’ (Epic) about the Napoleonic campaigns for the Cabaret du Chat Noir in Montmartre.
9. Van Gogh thought at first that the cost of bed and board in the asylum was 80 francs a month (letter 760); in the meantime he had learned from Salles that the minimum would be 100 francs (letter 765). Peyron had also written to Theo about this on 29 April 1889. See Hulsker 1993-2, p. 177. When Vincent moved into the asylum, Theo began to make monthly notes in his account book of these expenses; see Account book 2002, pp. 44-45.
10. Van Gogh had stored his furniture in the Café de la Gare owned by Joseph Ginoux; see letter 760, n. 4. He had lodged there from 7 May to 17 September 1888.
11. An allusion to the neighbours’ objections to Van Gogh’s abnormal behaviour, which had led to the petition complaining about him (letter 750).
12. For Mirbeau’s article ‘Claude Monet’, see letter 754, n. 7.