Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (10 March 1888) ... paintings into America; is this
true?
Perhaps it would be easier to get a few dealers and
collectors to agree to buy the impressionist paintings than to
get the artists to agree to share the price of
their paintings.
Nevertheless, the artists couldn't do better than to get together,
and give over to the association, and share the proceeds
of the sales, so that the society could at least guarantee its
members a chance to live and to work.
If de Gas [Degas], Claude Monet, Renoir, Sisley and C. Pissarro
took the initiative, saying, “Look here, we 5 give 10
paintings each (or rather we each give to the value of 10,000
Frs. to be estimated by expert members such as Tersteeg and
yourself, co-opted by the Society, said experts likewise to put
in capital in the form of paintings) and we further undertake to
hand over every year pictures to the value of…
“And we invite you others, Guillaumin, Seurat, Gauguin, etc.,
etc., to join with us (your paintings to undergo...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (28 May 1888) ... and others would not do so much.
As for me, it worries me to spend so much money on myself
alone, but the only way to remedy it is for me to find a woman
with money, or some fellows who will join me to paint
pictures.
I don't see the woman, but I do see the fellows.
If this will suit him, we must not keep him dangling.
And this would be the beginning of an association. Bernard,
who is also coming South, will join us, and truly, I can see
you at the head of an Impressionist Society in France yet. And
if I can be of any use in getting them together, I would
willingly look upon them all as better artists than I. You must
realize how it vexes me to spend more than they do; I must find
some arrangement more advantageous both for you and to them.
And it would be so in this case. Think it over carefully, but
isn't it true that in good company you can live on little,
provided you spend your money at home?
Perhaps the time will come when we shall be less hard up,
...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (c. 15 June 1888) ... up against reality to
become facts.
I do not want to discuss Gauguin's project, having once
thought the situation over this winter - you know the result.
You know that I think a Society of Impressionists would be
something of the same nature as the Society of the Twelve
English Pre-Raphaelites, and I think that the artists would
guarantee each other a livelihood, each consenting to give a
considerable number of pictures to the society, and that the
profits as well as the losses should be had in common.
I do not think that this society would last indefinitely,
but I think that while it lasted we should live courageously,
and produce.
But if Gauguin and his Jewish bankers came tomorrow and
asked me for no more than 10 pictures for a society of dealers,
and not a society of artists, on my word I do not know if I'd
have confidence in it, though I would willingly give 50 to a
society of artists.
Isn't it a bit like Reid - why say that Gabriel de la
Roquette is a...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (21 June 1888) ... there is the
following passage in the letter: “I insist that,
supposing the capital is got together, or half of it got
together, your brother will exert his powers to lead the
enterprise to success, and will be its director.” I know
quite well that he also writes: “In principle I accept
your proposition.” But I think it would be going a bit
too far if we did not firmly point out to him that our proposal
was meant without all those special considerations, and that we
ourselves are too short of money to be able to risk anything
but living together and sharing the monthly money.
And it is true I did not know that he had such a big family;
because of this he might prefer to stay in the North.
The utmost one could do would be for me to leave the South
and go and join him in Brittany, if this would solve his
difficulties. And my longing to work in the South is naturally
subordinate to the interests of fellows like him.
For all that, one should...
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (29 June 1888) ... be
winter in the North in four months. And it seems so certain to
me that two people doing precisely the same work ought, if
circumstances prevent them spending more, to be able to live at
home on bread, wine, and anything in short that you'd want to
add. The difficulty is eating at home alone.
