8 Jan. 1890
When I last wrote to you
1 it was under the impression of
Dr Peyron’s first letter. I’m very, very glad that it isn’t as bad as that letter made me assume, and he himself wrote to me again to say that it had taken a quite different turn than he had thought at first. In his first letter
1r:2 he gave me to understand that it was dangerous for you to continue to paint, as the paints were a poison, but he got a little carried away, perhaps through simply relying on hearsay, being ill himself. Let’s hope, then, that you may continue to work as you intend to.
Tasset must have dispatched a new consignment of colours and canvas to you.
2 Yesterday evening your new consignment arrived, and it’s very remarkable. You know, one of the things I like best is the Evening after
Millet.
3 Copied like that it’s no longer a copy. There’s a tone in it and everything is so harmonious. It’s really very successful. Among the other canvases I very much
1v:3 like the women climbing on the rocks
4 and the main road with the road-menders.
5 I feel that there’s more atmosphere in your latest works, more distance than in the preceding ones. Which comes perhaps from the fact that you don’t use so much impasto everywhere. In one of the rolls there was also a superb pen drawing of a fountain in a garden;
6 next Sunday I have a meeting with
Lauzet – who will find them very fine, I’m sure.
I share your opinion that it would perhaps be good that you should come here for a while this spring, even if you go to the country afterwards if the life here doesn’t suit you.
1v:4 Here there’ll always be the matter of you being unable to work outdoors,
7 but you will see, and in any case we’ll be happy to have you with us for a while.
Jo’s confinement should take place between 1 and 15 February, and after that her
mother is staying for around a month, but after she’s left the little room is free and at your disposal. Jo is very well and doesn’t feel much discomfort from her pregnancy. The
doctor also thinks that it will go well.
Wil arrived with such a bad cold that she had to stay in bed this morning, but I hope that she’ll be rid of it with a day or two’s care. It’s kind of
Mr Salles to go and see you. I wrote to him on New Year’s Day but I hadn’t dared ask him to go and see you. I’m very pleased that this time the crisis passed so quickly.
Be of good heart, and warm regards from
Jo and from
Wil, good handshake, and thank you very much for the consignment, which gave us great pleasure.