22 October 1889

My dear Vincent,

Enclosed you’ll find 150 francs – for Mr Peyron1 and for your journey to Arles. I had said in my letters to Mr Peyron that he ought to tell me if he’d had additional expenses, he has never spoken of them. Ask him then, if you will, to tell me if anything is owing to him each time he acknowledges receipt of my monthly letter, then it doesn’t mount up. I hope that you’re  1r:2 still well and that you have good luck with work. I’ve had several people to see your paintings. Israëls’ son,2 who has been living in Paris for a while, Veth, a Dutchman who does portraits and who writes in De Nieuwe Gids, that journal you’ve perhaps heard about that makes people so indignant3 but in which good things often appear, and then Van Rijsselberghe, one of the Vingtistes from Brussels,4 the latter also saw everything there is at Tanguy’s, and your works seem to interest him a great deal. In Belgium they’re already more accustomed to brightly coloured painting, the Vingtistes’ exhibition did a lot of good in that respect, despite the fact that nobody’s buying anything there. The Independents’ exhibition is  1v:3 finished and I have your irises5 back; it’s one of your good things. I consider that you’re strongest when you’re doing real things, like that, or like the Tarascon diligence,6 or the child’s head,7 or the upright undergrowth with the ivy.8 The form is so well defined and the whole is full of colour. I clearly sense what preoccupies you in the new canvases like the village in the moonlight9 or the mountains,10 but I feel that the search for style takes away the real sentiment of things. In Gauguin’s last consignment there are the same preoccupations as with you, but with him there are a lot more memories  1v:4 of the Japanese, the Egyptians etc. As for me, I prefer to see a local Breton woman than a Breton woman with the gestures of a Japanese woman, but in art there are no limits, so it’s quite permissible to do as one sees it.11 Guillaumin was in Auvergne this summer, from where he brought back some good canvases.12 He doesn’t search for much that’s new in the coloration. He’s content with what he’s found, and one always finds his same pink, orange and violet blue patches again, but his touch is vigorous and his view of nature is quite broad. Pissarro has left13 and will be busying himself with that worthy fellow in Auvers.14 I hope that he’ll succeed, and that next spring, if not sooner, you’ll come to see us. Jo is well, she’s getting considerably bigger and can already feel the child quickening, but that doesn’t cause her too much inconvenience. Mother sent us a letter from Cor. He has arrived in Johannesburg. It’s a very wild country where you have to walk around with a revolver all day. There are no plants, nothing but sand. Except in places that are like oases. My letter must go off. Jo sends her warm regards. Accept a good handshake, and

Ever yours,

Theo