Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (17 January 1889) ... francs. That barely takes us to the 10 th . I hoped
for a letter from you about the 10 th , but, this
letter did not arrive till today, January 17 th , the
time between has been a most rigorous fast, the more painful
because I cannot recover under such conditions.
I have nevertheless started work again, and I already have
three studies in the studio, besides the portrait of Dr. Rey,
which I gave him as a keepsake. So there is no
worse harm done this time than a little more suffering and its
attendant wretchedness. And I keep on hoping. But I feel weak
and rather uneasy and frightened. That will pass, I hope, as I
get back my strength.
Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (24 March 1889) ... liberty to carry
on my handicraft.
M. Rey says that instead of eating enough
and at regular times, I kept myself going on coffee and alcohol.
I admit all that, but all the same it is true that to attain
the high yellow note that I attained last summer, I really had
to be pretty well keyed up. And that after all, an artist is a
man with his work to do, and it is not for the first idler who
comes along to crush him for good.
Am I to suffer imprisonment or the madhouse? Why not? Didn't
Rochefort and Hugo, Quinet and others give an eternal example
by submitting to exile, and the first even to a convict prison?
But all I want to say is that this is a thing above the mere
question of illness and health.
Naturally one is beside oneself in parallel cases. I do not
say equivalent, being in a very inferior and secondary place to
theirs, but I do say parallel.
