| | 35 letters relate to art - influences... | Excerpt length: shorter longer | |
| Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(30 March 1874)
... to hear that you are doing so
well.
You have done well to read the book by Burger; you should
devour books on art as much as possible, especially The Gazette
de Beaux-Arts, etc. By all means try to get a good knowledge of
pictures. That picture by Apol we have here now is good, but
last year he painted the same subject and I thought it was
better and brighter than this one.
I am glad that you go to see Uncle Cor now and then; he has
pictures and prints which you can never see at the house in The
Hague.
I, too, am very busy just now and am glad of it, for that is
what I want. À Dieu, boy, keep in good spirits. I wish
you well. Greetings to Iterson.
Vincent
... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(4 September 1875)
... please
include it with yours.
I have bought the book about Michel, with etchings after his
pictures; as soon as I have finished it, I will send it to you.
Yet Michel is not nearly so beautiful as the landscape
described in Adam Bede which impressed us both so much. There
is also a painting by Bonington which is almost
“it” but not quite. When you have a chance
and I have finished the book, please lend it, in my name, to
Uncle Cor; but I want it to be yours. I see the pictures
themselves, so you may as well have the descriptions and
etchings after them.
Compliments to the Haanebeeks, Carbentuses, Van Stockums,
Mauve, and Roos when you see them.
Best wishes, always your loving brother, Vincent
Also give the book by Michel to Mr. Tersteeg to read.
... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(c. 2 or 3 November 1882)
... superfluous to write more about it.
But I can hardly say that I share your thought which you
express in the following words: “To me it seems quite
natural that the desired change will occur.” Just think
how many great men are dead or will not be with us for long -
Millet, Brion, Troyon, Rousseau, Daubigny, Corot - so many
others are no longer among the living; think further back,
Leys, Gavarni, de Groux (I name only a few), still further
back, Ingres, Delacroix and Géricault, think how old
modern art already is, add many others as well who have
already reached old age.
Up to Millet and Jules Breton, however, there was always in
my opinion progress, but to surpass these two - don't even
mention it.
Their genius may be equalled in former, present or later
times, but to surpass it is not possible. In that high range
there is an equality of genius, but higher than the top of the
mountain one cannot climb. Israëls, for instance, may
equal... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard
(2nd half March 1884)
... self-righteousness in
religion.
My strongest sympathies in the literary as well as in the
artistic field are with those artists in whom I see the soul at
work most strongly - Israëls, for example, is clever as a
technician, but so is Vollon - but I like Israëls more
than Vollon because I see something more in Israëls,
something quite different from the masterly reproduction of the
materials, something quite different from light and brown,
something quite different from the colour - yet that something
quite different is achieved by the precise rendering of the
light effect, the material, the colour.
This something different of which I find so much more in
Israëls than in Vollon is pronounced in Eliot, and Dickens
has it as well. Does it lie in their choice of subjects?
No, for that, too, is only an effect.
What I am driving at, among other things, is that while
Eliot is masterly in her execution, above and beyond that she
also has... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(15-17 December 1884)
... too. But
first I must paint them. Now just listen - do you remember how
in the very beginning I always spoke to you about my great
respect and sympathy for the work of Father de Groux? Of late I
think of him more than ever. One must not confront him
only in his historical pictures, though these are also very
good, nor in the first instance in a few pictures with the
sentiment of, for instance, the author Conscience. But one must
see his “Grace before Meat,” “The
Pilgrimage,” “The Paupers' Bench” and above
all, the simple Brabant types. De Groux is appreciated as
little as, for instance, Thijs Mans. He is different though,
but this they have in common, that they met with violent
opposition.
In these days - whether the public is wiser now I can't
tell, but this much I know, that it is not at all superfluous
to weigh seriously one's thoughts and one's actions.
And at this very moment I could tell you some new names of
people that... |
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