897 Theo van Gogh to Vincent van Gogh. Paris, Saturday, 5 July 1890.

metadata

No. 897 (Brieven 1990 901, Complete Letters T40)
From: Theo van Gogh
To: Vincent van Gogh
Date: Paris, Saturday, 5 July 1890

Source status

Original manuscript

Location

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b767 V/1962

Date

Letter headed: ‘Paris le 5 Juillet 1890’.

original text

1r:1

Paris le 5 Juillet 1890.

Mon cher Vincent,

Merçi bien de ta lettre. Heureusement la mienne t’apporte de bonnes nouvelles du petit. Après quelques jours de souffrance il a recommencé à être gai & ne plus autant se plaindre.1 C’est grace au bon lait d’anesses que nous lui donnons actuellement. Les animaux viennent à la porte & il reçoit le matin du lait chaud, toujours 1v:2 de la même bête. Ensuite il reste encore pour deux fois, qu’il reçoit alternativement avec le lait de sa mère, qui vient maintenant en abondance. Il a excellente mine à l’heurre qu’il est. Il faut qu’il prenne le lait d’anesse au moins pendant 15 jours & nous ne pourrons donc pas aller chez Pissarro le 14 Juillet.2 J’ai donc pris ce jour pour aller chez Claude Monet avec Valadon3 qui certes m’ammerderaa ce jour, mais je suis content d’aller voir les nouveaux travaux de Monet. Il n’y a pas de raison pour que tu recule ta venue, non que nous n’apprécions pas que tu as voulu 1v:3 venir partager mes douleurs, au contraire merçi, mais avec un malade moins qu’il y a de monde, mieux cela vaut. Vient donc si tu veux Dimanche avec le premier train, tu verras le matin Walpoole Brooke qui vient voir tes tableaux chez Tangui, ensuite un Bouda japonais que j’ai vu chez un brocanteur & après cela nous allons déjeuner chez nous pour voir tes études à toi. Tu resteras chez nous tant que tu voudras & tu nous donneras conseil pour l’arrangement de notre nouvel appartement. Probablement Dries & Annie viendront au rez de chaussée & ils auront un petit jardin dont nous, naturellement, profiterons. Si cela veut 1r:4 marcher avec les deux femmes cela promet du bon. Peutêtre bien que Dries viendra chez nous. J’ai beaucoup de chance dans les affaires sinon comme ventes de tableaux de f^s 800000000000 mais j’ai entre autres vendu deux Gauguins pour lesquels je lui ai envoyé le montant.4 Pissarro m’écrit qu’il n’a pas pu payer son loyer, je vais lui envoyer un petit acompte sur les affaires que nous ferons. Voyons, son exposition lui a bien donné quelque chose mais c’était toujours pour boucher des trous. Il a eu un abcès à l’oeil. Pauvre vieux!5 Bonjour frère, nous comptons te voir Dimanche. Bien bonjour de Jo & le petit te sourit comme avant sa maladie. Bonne poignée de mains de ton frère qui t’aime

Theo

Bonjour à D^r Gachet & les siens.

Le croquis du paysage à la Michel promet6 & le portrait doit être superbe.7

translation

1r:1

Paris 5 July 1890

My dear Vincent,

Thanks very much for your letter. Fortunately mine brings you good news of the little one. After a few days of suffering he has started to be jolly again and no longer to cry so much.1 It’s thanks to the good ass’s milk we’re currently giving him. The animals come to the door, and in the morning he receives warm milk, always 1v:2 from the same animal. Afterwards there’s still enough for two doses, which he receives alternately with his mother’s milk, which is now coming in abundance. He looks extremely well at the moment. He must take the ass’s milk for at least a fortnight, and so we can’t go to Pissarro’s on 14 July.2 So I’ve taken that day to go to see Claude Monet with Valadon,3 who will certainly get on my nerves on that day, but I’m content to go and see the new works by Monet. There’s no reason for you to put back your arrival, not that we don’t appreciate that you wanted 1v:3 to come and share my pains, on the contrary, thank you, but with a patient, the fewer people there are around the better it is. So come if you like on Sunday with the first train, in the morning you’ll see Walpole Brooke, who’s coming to see your paintings at Tanguy’s, next a Japanese Buddha which I saw in a curio shop, and after that we’re going to have lunch at our place to see your studies. You can stay with us as long as you want, and you can give us advice on the arrangement of our new apartment. Dries and Annie will probably come to the ground floor, and they’ll have a little garden which we, naturally, will have the benefit of. If the two women 1r:4 get on with each other it promises well. Perhaps good that Dries will come to our place. I’m having a lot of luck in business, even if I haven’t sold paintings for 800,000,000,000 francs, but among other things I’ve sold two Gauguins, for which I’ve sent him the amount.4 Pissarro wrote to me that he wasn’t able to pay his rent, I’m going to send him a little advance on the business we’ll do. You see, his exhibition really brought him in something, but still just to plug the holes. He’s had an abscess on the eye. Poor old chap!5 Good-day to you brother, we’re counting on seeing you on Sunday. Warm regards from Jo, and the little one is smiling at you like before he was ill. Good handshake from your brother who loves you.

Theo

Regards to Dr Gachet and his family.

The croquis of the landscape à la Michel is promising,6 and the portrait must be superb.7

notes

1. Andries Bonger wrote to his parents the day before: ‘Little Vincent is infinitely better. Net [Jo] doesn’t want to believe it, but we are sure it’s teeth’ (FR b1856).

2. On 6 July 1890, Camille Pissarro wrote that he hoped that Theo would be able to visit him in Eragny on 14 July, in the company of Vincent and Andries Bonger. This visit did not take place (Photocopy of this letter in Van Gogh Museum, Documentation).

3. René Valadon, Theo’s employer and the founder of Boussod, Valadon & Cie.

a. Read: ‘m’emmerdera’.

4. This most likely refers to Dog running in the grass (present whereabouts unknown, not in Wildenstein), sold on 5 July 1890 to Eugène Blot for 200 francs (Gauguin received 150 francs), and Oranges and lemons with view of Pont-Aven, 1889 (W401) (Baden, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney und Jenny Brown), sold on 30 April 1890 to Ernest Chausson for 300 francs. See GRI, Goupil Ledgers, nos. 20859 and 20648; Gauguin lettres 1983, p. 183; and exhib. cat. Amsterdam 1999, pp. 139, 212.

5. Theo had written to Pissarro on 5 July that he would send 500 francs ‘to be deducted from the deals that we will make, and we will do many, it’s a firm promise, if you’ll only be sure to take good care of yourself and of your eye’. (à valoir sur les affaires que nous ferons, et nous en ferons beaucoup, c’est dit et promis, si seulement vous voulez bien vous soigner et soigner votre oeil). See Jampoller 1986, p. 59 and Correspondance Pissarro 1980-1991, vol. 2, p. 354 (n. 1). For the Pissarro exhibition at Theo’s, see letter 858, n. 9. See also n. 2 above; regarding Pissarro’s eye complaint, see letter 799, n. 5.

6. The letter sketch Wheatfields (F - / JH 2039) in letter 896, after the painting of the same name F 775 / JH 2038 .

7. The painting Girl against a background of wheat (F 774 / JH 2053 ), after which Van Gogh made the letter sketch of the same name F - / JH 2054 in letter 896.