| | 2 letters relate to feelings - suicide... | Excerpt length: shorter longer | |
| Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(18 August 1877)
... of dry bread and a glass of
beer - that is what Dickens advises for those who are on the
point of committing suicide, as being a good way to keep them,
at least for some time, from their purpose. And even if one is
not in such a mood, it is right to do it occasionally, while
thinking, for instance, of Rembrandt's picture, “The Men
of Emmaus.” Before I went to Stricker's, I walked through
the Jewish quarter and along the Buitenkant, the Old
Teertuinen, Zeedyk, Warmoes Straat, and around the Oudezijds
Chapel and the Old and the South churches, through all kinds of
old streets with forges and coopers' shops, etc., and through
narrow alleys, like the Niezel, and canals with narrow bridges,
like those we saw that evening at Dordrecht. It was interesting
to watch the start of a new day's work there.
I have written a composition in which all the parables are
arranged in proper order, and the miracles, etc. I am doing the
same in English and French, and expect to... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(28 May 1888)
... death is idle - let it go for what it's worth - can't you
see that similarly self-sacrifice, living for other people, is
a mistake if it involves suicide, for in that case you actually
turn your friends into murderers.
So if it has come to this, that you have to travel around
like this, with never any peace, it honestly kills any desire
in me to get back my own ease of mind.
If you agree to these proposals, all right - but then ask
these Goupils to take me on again, at my old wages, and take me
with you on these journeys. People matter more than things, and
the more trouble I take over pictures, the more pictures in
themselves leave me cold. The reason why I try to make them is
to be among the artists. You understand, it would make me
wretched to be forcing you to make money. Rather, let's be
together whatever happens. Where there's a will there`s a way,
and I think if you can get well now, you will be well for quite
a number of years. But don't kill yourself now, either for... |
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