Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (5 August 1882) ... I will tell you what I have bought.
First, a large-size moist-colour box containing 12 pieces or
tubes of watercolours, with a double cover, one of which can be
used as a palette; there is also room for about six brushes. It
is an article which is of great value for working in the open
air, and really absolutely necessary, but it is very expensive;
and I had always put it off and worked with loose pieces on
saucers, which, however, are very difficult to take with you,
especially if one has to carry other things besides. So this is
a fine thing which, now that I have it, will last a long
time.
At the same time I stocked up on watercolours and renewed my
brushes. Then, for oil painting, I now have everything which is
absolutely necessary, and also a stock of paints, large tubes
(which are much cheaper than the little ones); but you will
understand that I limited myself to the simple colours in
watercolour as well as in oil: ochre (red - yellow- brown),
cobalt and Prussian blue,...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (19 August 1882) ... gives me a new, fresh view of things.
The next time you send money, I shall buy some good marten
brushes, which are the real drawing brushes, as I have
discovered, for drawing a hand or a profile in colour.
Also, I see they are absolutely necessary for very delicate
branches, etc. No matter how fine, the Lyon brushes make too
broad stripes or strokes. My painting paper is also almost used
up - toward the first of September I shall have to buy a few
more supplies, but I shall not need more than the usual
allowance.
Then I want to tell you that I quite agree with several
points in your letter.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Anthon van Rappard (18-19 September 1882) ... man from the almshouse posing for
me.
Now it is really high time I returned Karl Robert's Le
fusain to you. I have read it through more than once, but
fusain [charcoal] does not come easily to me, and I prefer to
work with a carpenter's pencil. I wish I could see someone
doing a fusain - with me it becomes overdone so rapidly, and
this must be caused by something that, I think, might be
overcome when I saw someone else doing it. Next time you come
I'll have to ask you a number of things about it.
All the same I'm glad I've read it, and I quite agree with
the author that it is splendid material to work with, and I
greatly wish I knew how to use it better.
Perhaps I shall find out someday, together with a number of
other things that are still obscure to me.
So I am returning it with many thanks. I am including some
wood engravings - among which there are two German ones by
Marchal. I think the Lançons beautiful, and especially
the one by Green and “The...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 10 October 1882) ... Dear Theo,
Your letter and its contents, literary as well as financial,
were very welcome, and I thank you warmly for it. In the first
place, I was especially glad to hear that perhaps it will not
be so very long before you come to Holland again. I should like
very much to know as soon as it is possible for you to decide
whether it will be before or after New Year's. Am very glad
that you sent off the studies. These days, when I am making
many new ones, I feel so strongly that I must try to keep my
studies after the model together. How delightful it would be if
I could consult with you about the work more, but we are too
far away from each other.
Recently I saw, and I also have it in my collection, a large
wood engraving after a picture by Roll, “Une Grève
de Charbonniers” [Miners' Strike]. Perhaps you know that
painter, and if so, what have you seen of his work? This one
represents the entrance to a mine, before which there are
groups of men and women and children who have evidently stormed
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (31 and 2 Dec-Jan 1882) ... because it cuts
through it.
But it occurred to me to make a drawing first with
carpenter's pencil and then to work in and over it with
lithographic crayon, which (because of the greasiness of the
material) fixes the pencil, a thing ordinary crayon does not
do, or, at least, does very badly. After doing a sketch in this
way, one can, with a firm hand, use the lithographic crayon
where it is necessary, without much hesitation or erasing. So I
finished my drawings pretty well in pencil, indeed, as much as
possible. Then I fixed them, and dulled them with milk. And
then I worked it up again with lithographic crayon where the
deepest tones were, retouched them here and there with a brush
or pen, with lampblack, and worked in the lighter parts with
white body colour.
In this way I made a drawing of an old man sitting reading,
with the light falling on his bald head, on his hand and the
book . And the second one, the bandaged head of
an injured man. The model who...
