891 To Theo van Gogh. Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday, 24 June 1890.

metadata

No. 891 (Brieven 1990 896, Complete Letters 644)
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Auvers-sur-Oise, Tuesday, 24 June 1890

Source status

Original manuscript

Location

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b692V/1962

Date

Vincent thanks Theo for the money he sent and his letter of 23 June. Because Jo van Gogh-Bonger dated the letter to 24 June 1890 in Brieven1914, and she possibly had a postmark to rely on, we have maintained this dating.

Additional

We assume the letter is complete, even though the signature is lacking. Van Gogh enclosed an unknown letter from Peyron.

original text

1r:1

Mon cher Theo,

merci beaucoup de ta lettre et du billet de fr. 50 qu’elle contenait. L’échange que tu as fait avec Bocka est très bien1 et suis bien curieux de voir comment il fait à présent.

J’espère que la santé de Jo va mieux puisque tu dis qu’elle a été indisposé. Certes il faut venir ici le plus tôt possible, la nature est bien bien belle ici et je languis de vous revoir tous.

M. Peyron m’a écrit il y a deux jours. ci joint sa lettre. je lui ai dit qu’il me semblait suffisant de donner aux garçons une dizaine de francs.2

Maintenant les toiles de là-bas sont arrivées, les Iris ont bien séché et j’ose croire que tu y trouveras quelquechôse;3 ainsi il y a aussi encore des roses,4 un champ de blé,5 une petite toile avec montagnes6 et enfin un cyprès avec une étoile.7

Cette semaine j’ai fait un portrait d’une jeune fille de 16 ans ou à peu près, en bleu contre fond bleu, la fille des gens où je loge. Je le lui ai donné ce portrait mais j’en ai fait pour toi une variante, une toile de 15.8

Puis j’ai une toile longue d’un mètre sur 50 centimetres seulement de hauteur, de champs de blé9 et une qui fait pendant d’un sous bois, 1v:2 des troncs lilas de peupliers et là-dessous de l’herbe fleurie rose, jaune, blanche et verts divers.10

Enfin un effet de soir – deux poiriers touts noirs contre ciel jaunissant. avec des bles et dans le fond violet le château encaissé dans la verdure sombre.11

Le Hollandais12 travaille assez assidument mais se fait encore illusion sur l’originalité de sa manière de voir, considérablement. Il fait des études à peu près comme en faisait Koning. un peu de gris, un peu de vert avec un toit rouge, une route blanchissante.

Que faut il dire dans un cas comme cela, s’il a de l’argent alors certes il fait bien de faire de la peinture. mais s’il faut qu’il intrigue beaucoup pour en vendre je le plains d’en faire, de la peinture, comme d’autres d’en acheter à un prix relativement trop elevé. Là, si pourtant il travaille seulement bien assidument tous les jours, il arriverait. Mais seul ou avec des peintres qui travaillent peu il ne ferait pas grand chose je crois.

1v:3

J’espère faire semaine prochaine le portrait de M^lle Gachet13 et peut être aurai je une fille de la campagne à poser aussi.

Je suis content de ce que Bock me fait cet échange car je trouvais qu’ils avaient bien payé un peu cher relativement l’autre toile14 étant des amis.

J’aimerais beaucoup un peu plus tard venir à Paris quelques jours, précisement pour aller une fois chez Quost, chez Jeannin, un ou deux autres. je voudrais bien que tu eusses un Quost et il y aurait probablement moyen d’en echanger un.15 Gachet viendra aujourd’hui voir les toiles du midi.

Prospérité avec le petit et bonne poignée de main en pensée à toi et à Jo.–

translation

1r:1

My dear Theo,

Thanks very much for your letter and for the 50-franc note it contained. The exchange you made with Boch is very good,1 and am very curious to see what sort of thing he’s making at present.

I hope that Jo’s health is better, since you say that she’s been indisposed. Indeed, you must come here as soon as possible, nature is very, very beautiful here, and I’m longing to see you all again.

Mr Peyron wrote to me two days ago. His letter is enclosed. I told him that it seemed to me sufficient to give the lads ten francs or so.2

Now the canvases from down there have arrived, the Irises have dried well and I dare believe that you’ll find something in them;3 thus there are also some roses,4 a wheatfield,5 a little canvas with mountains6 and finally a cypress with a star.7

This week I’ve done a portrait of a young girl of 16 or so, in blue against a blue background, the daughter of the people where I’m lodging. I gave her that portrait but I’ve done a variant for you, a no. 15 canvas.8

Then I have a canvas one metre long by only 50 centimetres high, of fields of wheat,9 and one that makes a pendant of undergrowth, 1v:2 lilac trunks of poplars, and underneath them some flower-dotted grass, pink, yellow, white and various greens.10

Finally a night effect – two completely dark pear trees against yellowing sky with wheatfields, and in the violet background the castle encased in the dark greenery.11

The Dutchman12 is working quite assiduously, but still deludes himself considerably about the originality of his way of seeing. He does studies a little like Koning did, a little grey, a little green with a red roof, a whitening road.

What can you say in a case like that, if he has money then certainly he does right to do painting. But if he has to scheme a lot to sell them I feel sorry for him doing it, painting, as I pity others for buying it at a price that’s relatively too high. If, though, he just works assiduously every day, he might get there. But alone or with painters who work little he wouldn’t do much, I think. 1v:3

I hope to do Miss Gachet’s portrait next week,13 and perhaps I’ll also have a country girl to pose too.

I’m pleased that Boch is doing this exchange with me, for I thought that, relatively, they’d paid a little too much for the other canvas,14 being friends.

I’d very much like to come to Paris for a few days a little later, precisely in order to go and see Quost once, to see Jeannin, one or two others. I’d very much like you to have a Quost, and there would probably be a way of exchanging one.15 Gachet will come today to see the canvases from the south.

Good fortune with the little one, and good handshake in thought for you and Jo.

notes

a. Read: ‘Boch’.

1. The painting obtained through an exchange was Eugène Boch’s The Agrappe mine in Frameries, Borinage (The Crachet-Pecry mine) . See letter 890, n. 2.

2. Peyron’s letter to Vincent and his reply to it are not known; the doctor must have written about the final settling of accounts, among other things. Peyron’s letter of 1 July 1890 (letter 895) is his response to the letter Vincent says he has written here.

3. Irises in a vase (F 680 / JH 1978 ) and Irises in a vase (F 678 / JH 1977 ).

4. Roses in a vase (F 681 / JH 1976 ) and Roses in a vase (F 682 / JH 1979 ).

5. This is Green wheatfield (F 718 / JH 1727 ). See cat. Otterlo 2003, p. 291.

6. Probably Landscape in the neighbourhood of Saint-Rémy (F 726 / JH 1874 ), which measures 33 x 41 cm. Another possibility is Orchard in blossom at the foot of the Alpilles (F 723 / JH 1722 ), which measures 37.5 x 30.5 cm.

7. Road with a cypress and a star (F 683 / JH 1982 ).

8. Adeline Ravoux (F 768 / JH 2035 ) and Adeline Ravoux (F 769 / JH 2037 ). The latter, measuring 71.5 x 53 cm and therefore a no. 15 canvas, did in fact come into Theo’s possession. Adeline, the eldest daughter of the innkeepers Mr and Mrs Ravoux, was 13 years old. Sixty-three years after the event, she wrote about posing for Van Gogh. See Ravoux 1957, and Hulsker 1990-1, p. 428.

9. This was Wheatfields (F 775 / JH 2038 ); Van Gogh included letter sketches after it in letters 893 and 896.

10. Couple walking between rows of poplars (F 773 / JH 2041 ).

11. Landscape at twilight (F 770 / JH 2040 ).

12. Anton Hirschig.

13. This resulted in Marguerite Gachet at the piano (F 772 / JH 2048 ).

14. For The red vineyard (F 495 / JH 1626 ), for which Boch’s sister Anna had paid 400 francs, see letter 875, n. 2.

15. The exchange probably never took place. The estate does, however, contain a landscape drawing by Quost.

Quost’s Garden with hollyhock, c. 1881-1890, must once have been in Theo’s possession as well, given its dedication: ‘A Theo van Gogh / Ce tableau qu’aime tant mon ami Vincent / Bien amicalement / E. Quost’ (To Theo van Gogh / This painting that my friend Vincent loves so much / Best wishes / E. Quost). The painting disappeared from the family collection but was acquired in 1996 by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 2304 . See Van Gogh Museum Journal. Amsterdam and Zwolle 1996, p. 203.