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\fancyhead[LO,RE]{\footnotesize To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 18 September 1888.}
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\begin{document}
\title{To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 18 September 1888.}
\date{Tuesday, 18 September 1888}}
\maketitle
\selectlanguage{english}
\section*{Metadata}
\subsection*{Source status:}

Original manuscript

\subsection*{Location:}

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. b583 a-b V/1962

\subsection*{Date:}

The letter was written the same day as the previous one to Theo (\TeiRefIII{l. 1*}), so we have dated it Tuesday, 18 September 1888. See further the notes to \href{let682.xml}{letter 682}, Date.

\subsection*{Additional:}

\section*{Original}
\selectlanguage{french}

\marginpar{[1r:1]}
\\
Mon cher Theo,
\\
ce matin de bonne heure je t’ai dejà écrit\footnote[1]{\TeiAnchor{
This was \href{let682.xml}{letter 682}.
}} \\puis je suis allé continuer un tableau de \\jardin ensoleillé.–\footnote[2]{\TeiAnchor{

Path in the public garden (F 470 / JH 1582); \href{let682.xml}{see letter 682}. 
}} Puis je l’ai rentré – et \\suis ressorti avec une toile blanche et celle \\là aussi est faite.–\footnote[3]{\TeiAnchor{

Path in the public garden (F 471 / JH 1613). Van Gogh describes this painting later in the letter.
}} Et maintenant j’ai \\encore envie de t’ecrire encore une fois.
\\
\TeiAbV{Parceque jamais j’ai eu une telle chance, \\ici la nature est extraordinairement \\belle. Tout et partout. La coupole du ciel \\est d’un bleu admirable, le soleil a un \\rayonnement de souffre pâle et c’est doux et \\charmant comme la combinaison des bleus \\celestes et des jaunes dans les Van der Meer de \\Delft. Je ne peux pas peindre aussi beau que \\cela mais cela m’absorbe tant, que je me laisse \\aller sans penser à aucune règle.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Cela me fait 3 tableaux des jardins en \\face de ma maison.\footnote[4]{\TeiAnchor{
As well as the two works referred to above, Van Gogh had a third painting of the park: The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578). \href{let681.xml}{See letter 681}.
}} Puis les deux cafés.
\footnote[5]{\TeiAnchor{

The night café (F 463 / JH 1575) and Café terrace at night (F 467 / JH 1580).
}} \\Puis les tournesols.
\footnote[6]{\TeiAnchor{

Sunflowers in a vase (F 453 / JH 1559), Sunflowers in a vase (F 459 / JH 1560), Sunflowers in a vase (F 456 / JH 1561) and Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562). 
}} Puis le portrait de Bock \\et le mien.
\footnote[7]{\TeiAnchor{

Eugène Boch (‘The poet’) (F 462 / JH 1574) and Self-portrait (F 476/ JH 1581).
}} Puis le soleil rouge sur l’usine\footnote[8]{\TeiAnchor{
This painting of a factory and a red sun is not known; cf. \href{let680.xml#n-10}{letter 680, n. 10.}

}} \\et les déchargeurs de sable.\footnote[9]{\TeiAnchor{

Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558).
}} le vieux moulin.
\footnote[10]{\TeiAnchor{

The old mill (F 550 / JH 1577).
}} \\Laissant les autres etudes de côté tu vois qu’il y a de la \\besogne de faite.}
\marginpar{[1v:2]}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais ma couleur, ma toile, ma bourse \\est epuisée aujourd’hui completement. \\Le dernier tableau, fait avec les derniers tubes \\sur le dernière toile, est un jardin naturellement \\vert, est peint sans vert proprement dit, \\rien qu’avec du bleu de prusse et du jaune \\de chrome. Je commence à me sentir tout \\autre chôse que ce que j’étais en venant ici, je \\ne doute plus, je n’hesite plus pour attaquer une chôse \\et cela pourrait bien encore croitre.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais quelle nature.– C’est un jardin public où je \\suis, tout près de la rue des bonnes petites femmes, \\et Mouries par exemple n’y entrait guere lorsque \\pourtant presque journellement nous nous promenions \\dans ces jardins mais de l’autre côté (il y en a 3).
\footnote[11]{\TeiAnchor{
Rue du Bout d’Arles ran from the Roubine du Roi Canal to rue des Récollets; the ‘maisons de tolérance’ (brothels) were in these two streets.  Van Gogh meant the public garden to the south-east of place Lamartine. \href{let604.xml#n-2}{See letter 604, n. 2,} for the other parks. 
}} \\Mais tu comprends que juste cela donne un je \\ne sais quoi de Boccace à l’endroit.\footnote[12]{\TeiAnchor{
An allusion to Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
}’s sensual nature, which Van Gogh had read about in the article ‘Boccace d’après ses oeuvres et les témoignages contemporains’ by Cochin\footnote{
Henry Cochin

(1854-1926) French writer
} discussed later in the letter (\TeiRefIII{see n. 15} below). Cochin said, among other things, that the young Boccaccio lived a dissipated life in Naples (p. 377).
}} \\Ce côté-là du jardin est d’ailleurs pour la meme raison \\de chastete ou de morale, degarni \\d’arbustes en fleur tel que le laurier rose. C’est \\des platanes communs, des sapins en buissons raides, \\un arbre pleureur et de l’herbe verte. Mais \\c’est d’une intimité. Il y a des jardins de Monet \\comme cela.}
\marginpar{[1v:3]}
\\
\TeiAbV{Tant que tu puisses supporter le poids de toute \\la couleur, de toile, d’argent que je suis forcé de \\dépenser, envoie moi toujours. Car ce que \\je prepare sera mieux que le dernier envoi et \\je crois que nous y gagnerons au lieu de \\perdre. Si j’arrive toutefois à faire un tout \\qui se tienne. Ce que je cherche.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais est il absolument impossible que Thomas \\me prête deux ou trois cents francs sur mes \\études? Cela m’en ferait gagner plus que \\mille car je ne saurais te le dire assez, je \\suis ravi ravi ravi de ce que je vois.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Et cela vous donne des aspirations d’automne
,
\footnote[13]{\TeiAnchor{
An allusion to the chapter entitled ‘Les aspirations de l’automne’ in Michelet\footnote{
Jules Michelet

(1798-1874) French writer
}’s L’amour
; \href{let014.xml#n-19}{see letter 14, n. 19.}

}} \\un enthousiasme qui fait que le temps passe sans \\qu’on le sente.– Gare au lendemain de fete, \\aux mistrals d’hiver.–}
\\
\TeiAbV{Aujourd’hui tout en travaillant j’ai beaucoup pensé \\à Bernard.– Sa lettre est empreinte de vénération \\pour le talent de Gauguin – il dit qu’il le trouve \\un si grand artiste qu’il en a presque peur \\et qu’il trouve mauvais tout ce que lui, Bernard, \\fait en comparaison de Gauguin. Et tu sais que cet \\hiver Bernard cherchait encore querelle à Gauguin.
\footnote[14]{\TeiAnchor{
Nothing is known about a quarrel between Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
} and Gauguin\footnote{
Paul (Eugène Henri) Gauguin

(1848-1903) French artist
} in the winter of 1887-1888. The two artists had not got on well at their first meeting in Pont-Aven in 1886. Bernard wrote about this in 1895: ‘The welcome Mr Gauguin gave me was extremely frosty, and that year there was nothing but the strangest antipathy between us.’ (L’accueil que me fit M. Gauguin fut un des plus glacés, et cette année-là il ne se manifesta entre nous que la plus étrange antipathie.) See Bernard 1994, vol. 2, p. 71.
}} \\Enfin quoi qu’il en soit et quoi qu’il arrive, il \\est tres consolant que ces artistes-là sont \\nos amis et j’ose le croire le resteront \\n’importe comment tournent les affaires.}
\\
\TeiAbV{J’ai tant de bonheur avec la maison – \\avec le travail – que j’ose \\encore croire que les bonheurs ne \\resteront pas seuls mais que tu \\les partageras de ton côté en ayant de \\la veine aussi. J’ai lu il y a quelque temps \\un article sur le Dante, Petrarque, Boccace, \\Giotto, Botticelli, mon dieu comme cela m’a fait \\de l’impression en lisant les lettres de ces gens-là.
\footnote[15]{\TeiAnchor{
This is the article by Henry Cochin\footnote{
Henry Cochin

(1854-1926) French writer
} mentioned above, ‘Boccace d’après ses oeuvres et les témoignages contemporains’, Revue des Deux Mondes 58 (15 July 1888), 3rd series, vol. 88, pp. 373-413 (see also \href{let665.xml#n-12}{letter 665, n. 12}). It discusses Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
}’s friendship with Francesco Petrarch\footnote{

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

(1304-1374) Italian poet
} at length. The author quotes from their letters several times. 
\TeiAbV{
Dante\footnote{

Dante Alighieri

(1265-1321) Italian poet
} is also referred to often in the article; Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
} is mentioned twice and Botticelli\footnote{
Sandro Botticelli

(1444/45-1510) Italian artist
} only once (and then very much in passing). Aside from Botticelli – whom Van Gogh added later – his summing up accords with that on the last page of the article: ‘Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Giotto, all the men were dead who had, after ten centuries, revived classical Latin glory’ (Dante, Petrarque, Boccace, Giotto, tous les hommes étaient morts, qui avaient, après dix siècles, revivifié l’antique gloire latine) (p. 413). }
}} 
\marginpar{[1r:4]}
\\Or Petrarque etait ici tout près à Avignon\footnote[16]{\TeiAnchor{

Petrarch\footnote{

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

(1304-1374) Italian poet
} spent much of his youth in Avignon, the residence of the popes. After studying in Montpellier and Bologna he returned there and remained for some considerable time. Avignon was important above all as the place where the poet met his muse Laura, on 6 April 1327 in the Church of St Claire.
}} et \\je vois les mêmes cyprès et lauriers roses.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{J’ai cherché à mettre quelque chose de cela dans \\un des jardins peint en pleine pate jaune citron \\et vert citron.\footnote[17]{\TeiAnchor{

The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578).
}} Giotto m’a touché le plus – \\
toujours souffrant et toujours plein de bonté \\et d’ardeur comme s’il vivait deja dans un \\monde autre que celui ci.–\footnote[18]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh based his remark about the sickly Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
} on Cochin\footnote{
Henry Cochin

(1854-1926) French writer
}’s article (‘Boccace d’après ses oeuvres et les témoignages contemporains’; \TeiRefIII{see n. 15} above); he also referred to the passage in question in \href{let665.xml}{letter 665}. It reads in full: ‘Giotto, ugly and sickly but radiating natural genius, was painting scenes from the Divine Comedy at the Château de l’Oeuf. The king, full of respect and admiration, spent his days with the painter, delighting in the brazen charm of his Florentine speech and putting up with the most caustic witticisms from him. He heaped honours on him and wanted to keep him in Naples and make him “the first man of his kingdom”.’ (Giotto, laid et chétif, mais rayonnant de génie naturel, peignait au château de l’OEuf des scènes de la Divine Comédie. Et le roi, plein de respect et d’admiration, passait ses journées auprès du peintre, prenant plaisir à la grâce hardie de son language florentin, souffrant de lui les saillies les plus mordantes, le comblant d’honneurs, voulant le retenir à Naples et en faire “le premier homme de son royaume”.) (p. 378).
}}
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Giotto est extraordinaire d’ailleurs et je le sens mieux \\que les poetes, le Dante, Petrarque, Boccace.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Il me semble toujours que la poesie est plus \\
terrible que la peinture quoique la peinture soit \\plus sâle et enfin plus emmerdante. \\Et le peintre en somme ne dit rien, il se tait \\et je préfère encore cela.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mon cher Theo lorsque tu auras vu les cyprès, \\les laurier roses, le soleil d’ici – et ce jour-là \\viendra, sois tranquille. Encore plus souvent \\tu penseras aux beaux Puvis de Chavannes, \\
Doux pays
\footnote[19]{\TeiAnchor{

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes\footnote{
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

(1824-1898) French artist
}, Pleasant land, c. 1882 (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Mary Gertrude Abbey Fund) had been on show at the Puvis de Chavannes retrospective at Durand-Ruel’s in Paris from 20 November-20 December 1887 (cat. no. 83). Ill. 314.
}} et tant d’autres.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{A travers le côté Tartarin\footnote[20]{\TeiAnchor{
The character of Tartarin in Daudet\footnote{
Alphonse Daudet

(1840-1897) French writer
}’s eponymous novels, 
Tartarin sur les Alpes
and 
Tartarin de Tarascon , which are set in the south of France. \href{let583.xml#n-9}{See letter 583, n. 9.}

}} et le côté Daumier \\du pays si drole où les bonnes gens ont \\l’accent que tu sais, il y a tant de Grec déjà \\et il y a la Venus d’Arles\footnote[21]{\TeiAnchor{
The marble statue ‘Venus of Arles’ is a Roman copy of an Aphrodite by Praxiteles from the end of the first century BC (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Cf. Baedeker 1889-2, p. 211. It was excavated in the Théâtre Antique in Arles in 1651 and given to Louis xiv for his palace at Versailles in 1684. The sculptor François Girardon restored the statue, adding arms and placing an apple in the goddess’s hand. The version Van Gogh saw in Arles is an early nineteenth-century plaster copy of the statue as restored by Girardon. Ill. 2246 (Musée de l’Arles antique, Documentation).
}} comme celle de \\Lesbos\footnote[22]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh was probably mistaken in the place name and meant the Venus de Milo (Melos) in the Louvre, from the first century BC, attributed to Alexandros of Antioch. Ill. 2248. Van Gogh might conceivably also be referring to the only other statue of Venus on display in the museum in Arles at the time: Head of a Goddess (Venus?). (Musée de l’Arles antique, Documentation).
}} et on sent encore cette jeunesse-là \\malgré tout.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Je n’en doute pas le moins du monde qu’un \\jour toi aussi tu connaitras le midi.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Tu iras peut etre voir Claude Monet quant il est \\à Antibes\footnote[23]{\TeiAnchor{

Monet\footnote{
Claude Oscar Monet

(1840-1926) French artist
} had painted landscapes in Antibes in the spring of 1888 and Theo had exhibited some of them; \href{let625.xml#n-5}{see letter 625, n. 5.}

}} ou enfin tu trouveras une occasion.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Quand il fait du mistral c’est pourtant juste le \\contraire d’un doux pays ici car le mistral \\est d’un agaçant.– Mais quelle revanche, quelle revanche \\lorsqu’il y a un jour sans vent. Quelle intensité \\des couleurs, quel air pur, quelle vibration sereine.}
\marginpar{[2r:5]}
\\
\TeiAbV{Demain je vais dessiner jusqu’à ce qu’arrive la couleur.–\footnote[24]{\TeiAnchor{
This would be the paint he had ordered in \href{let677.xml}{letter 677}.
}} \\Mais j’y suis arrivé maintenant de parti pris de \\ne plus dessiner un tableau au fusain. Cela ne sert \\à rien, il faut attaquer le dessin avec la couleur \\meme pour bien dessiner.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Ah – l’exposition à la revue independante\footnote[25]{\TeiAnchor{
Theo had suggested that Vincent might exhibit at La Revue Indépendante: \href{let677.xml#n-16}{see letter 677, n. 16.}

}} – \\bon – mais une fois pour toutes – \\nous sommes trop fumeurs pour mettre le \\cigare dans la bouche du mauvais côté.\footnote[26]{\TeiAnchor{

\href{let673.xml#n-6}{See letter 673, n. 6,} for this reference to Daudet\footnote{
Alphonse Daudet

(1840-1897) French writer
}’s 
L’immortel
.
}}
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Nous serons obligés de chercher à vendre pour pouvoir \\refaire mieux les memes choses vendues, cela \\c’est parceque nous sommes dans un mauvais \\metier – mais cherchons autre chose que la joie \\de rue qui est douleur de maison.\footnote[27]{\TeiAnchor{
This proverb occurs in Daudet\footnote{
Alphonse Daudet

(1840-1897) French writer
}’s 
Numa Roumestan
. The novel, which Van Gogh had read in 1884 (\href{let439.xml#n-4}{see letter 439, n. 4}), ends with a lengthy passage about the Provencal saying ‘Gau de carriero, doulou d’ostau’ (‘Joie de rue, douleur de maison’), which is also the last sentence of the book.
}}
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Cet après midi j’ai eu un public choisi..... \\de 4 ou 5 maquereaux et une douzaine de gamins \\qui trouvaient surtout interessant de voir la couleur \\sortir des tubes. Eh bien ce public-là – c’est la \\gloire ou plutôt j’ai la ferme intention de me moquer \\de l’ambition et de la gloire comme de ces gamins-là \\et de ces voyous des bords du Rhône et de la Rue du \\Bout d’Arles.–}
\\
\TeiAbV{J’ai été aujourd’hui chez Milliet, il va venir \\demain ayant prolongé son sejour de 4 jours. \\Je voudrais que Bernard aille faire son service \\en Afrique car là il ferait de belles choses \\et je ne sais encore que lui dire. Il a \\dit qu’il me ferait l’échange de son portrait \\pour une étude de moi.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais il a dit qu’il n’ose pas faire Gauguin \\comme je le lui avais demandé parcequ’il se sent \\trop timide devant Gauguin.\footnote[28]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh had received a letter from Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
} the previous day; \href{let682.xml}{see letter 682}.
}} Bernard est \\au fond un tel temperament!! il est quelquefois \\fou et méchant mais certes ce n’est pas moi \\qui aie le droit de lui reprocher cela parceque \\je connais trop moi-meme la même névrose \\et je sais que lui ne me reprocherait pas non \\plus.– S’il allait en Afrique chez \\Milliet, Milliet le prendrait \\certes en amitié. Car Milliet est tres fidèle \\comme ami et fait si facilement l’amour \\qu’il méprise l’amour presque.}
\marginpar{[2v:6]}
\\
\TeiAbV{Que fait Seurat.– Je n’oserais pas lui montrer \\les etudes deja envoyées mais celles des tournesols \\et des cabarets et des jardins je voudrais qu’il les \\voie – je réflechis souvent à son systeme et toutefois \\je ne le suivrai pas du tout mais lui est coloriste \\original et c’est la meme chose pour Signac \\mais à un autre degré, les pointilleurs ont trouvé \\du neuf et je les aime tout de même bien. \\Mais moi – je le dis franchement – \\je reviens plutôt à ce que je cherchais avant de \\venir à Paris et je ne sais si quelqu’un \\avant moi aie parlé de couleur suggestive. \\Mais Delacroix et Monticelli tout en \\n’en ayant pas parlé l’ont faite.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais moi je suis encore comme j’etais à \\Nunen lorsque j’ai fait un vain effort pour \\apprendre la musique – alors déjà – \\tellement je sentais les rapports qu’il y a entre \\notre couleur et la musique de Wagner.\footnote[29]{\TeiAnchor{
In 1912, in the magazine De Amsterdammer, Anton Kerssemakers\footnote{
Antonius (Anton) Cornelius Augustinus Kerssemakers

(1846-1924) tanner in Eindhoven, pupil of Van Gogh
} recalled: ‘He was always comparing painting with music, and so as to get a better understanding of the gradation of tones, he started to take piano lessons with an old music teacher, who was also an organist, in E[indhoven]. This didn’t last long, though, because during the lessons Van Gogh kept comparing the notes of the piano with Prussian blue and dark green or dark ochre to bright cadmium, and so the poor man thought he must be dealing with a madman and became so afraid of him that he stopped the lessons.’ Quoted in Verzamelde brieven 1973, vol. 3, p. 95. The music teacher was Hein van der Zande (1820-1903), according to Dimmen Gestel\footnote{
Dimmen Gestel

(1862-1945) printer in Eindhoven
} in Het Eindhovensch Dagblad, 10 October 1930. Charles Blanc\footnote{
Charles Blanc

(1813-1882) French writer
} had written in 
Les artistes de mon temps
: ‘Colour can be learned like music’ (Le coloris s’apprend comme la musique). See Blanc 1876, p. 62.
}} \\Maintenant il est vrai, je vois dans l’impressionisme \\la résurrection de Eugène Delacroix \\mais les interpretations étant et divergeantes \\et un peu irreconciliables ce ne sera pas encore \\l’impressionisme qui formulera la doctrine. \\C’est pour cela que je reste moi dans les \\impressionistes parceque cela ne dit \\rien et n’engage à rien. et je n’ai pas, là--
\\dedans en copain, à me formuler.–}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mon dieu il faut faire la bête dans la vie, \\je demande moi du temps pour etudier \\et toi, est ce que tu demandes autre chôse \\que cela. Mais je sens que toi tu dois \\comme moi aimer à avoir \\la tranquilité nécessaire pour etudier \\sans parti pris.}
\marginpar{[2v:7]}
\\
\TeiAbV{Et je crains tant de te l’ôter par mes \\demandes d’argent.–}
\\
\TeiAbV{Pourtant je calcule tant et aujourd’hui \\encore je trouvais que pour les dix mètres de \\toile j’avais calculé juste toutes les couleurs \\sauf une seule, la fondamentale du \\jaune. Si toutes mes couleurs finissent \\en même temps n’est ce pas là une preuve \\que je sens en somnambule les proportions \\relatives. C’est comme pour le dessin, \\je ne mesure presque pas et en cela je \\suis bien categoriquement opposé à Cormon \\qui dit que s’il ne mesurait pas il dessinerait \\comme un cochon.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Je pense que tu as tout de même bien fait \\d’acheter tant de chassis car il faut en \\avoir un certain nombre pour pouvoir bien \\secher les toiles ce qui est leur conservation \\et moi-même j’en ai un tas ici aussi. \\Mais il ne faut pas te gêner pour en ôter \\des chassis pour que le tout ne prenne pas \\trop de place.}
\\
\TeiAbV{Je paye moi ici les chassis de 30, 25, 20, à \\raison de fr. 1.50 et les 15, 12, 10, à 1 franc. \\Si je les fais faire par le menuisier.
\footnote[30]{\TeiAnchor{

L’indicateur marseillais 1888 lists 23 carpenters (menuisiers); we do not know who Van Gogh got to make his stretching frames.
}}
}
\\
\TeiAbV{La menuiserie etant fort chère ici, Tanguy en \\les comptant à ce prix-là doit pouvoir les livrer aussi. \\Je cherche un cadre pour la toile de 30 carrée\\ en noyer léger à 5 francs et je pense que je l’aurai. \\Le cadre en chêne lourd pour la toile de 10, portrait, \\me coûte 5 francs aussi.\footnote[31]{\TeiAnchor{
By ‘the square no. 30 canvas’ and ‘the no. 10 canvas, portrait’ Van Gogh is referring in general to the canvas sizes for which he was seeking frames, although he did already have specific works in mind: The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578), which he sent to Theo in a walnut frame in May 1889 (\href{let777.xml}{see letter 777}), and Eugène Boch (‘The poet’) (F 462 / JH 1574), which he planned to hang in his bedroom (\href{let693.xml}{see letter 693}).
}}
}
\\
\TeiAbV{J’ai encore dû commander 5 chassis de \\30 pour la nouvelle toile\footnote[32]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh had ordered 5 metres of canvas in \href{let680.xml}{letter 680}; in \href{let687.xml}{letter 687} he confirmed that he had received it.
}} qui sont déjà \\faites et que je dois prendre. cela te \\prouvera que je ne peux pas être sans \\quelque argent à cette epoque de travail. 
\marginpar{[2r:8]}
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Il y a une consolation que nous sommes dans \\les matieres premieres toujours et ne speculons pas \\mais ne cherchons qu’à produire.\footnote[33]{\TeiAnchor{
Cf. for this view the following passage in Voltaire\footnote{
François Marie Arouet (Voltaire)

(1694-1778) French writer
}’s 
Candide
: ‘Let’s work without thinking, said Martin, it is the only way to make life bearable’ (Travaillons sans raisonner, dit Martin; c’est le seul moyen de rendre la vie supportable). Voltaire, Romans et Contes. Ed. Frédéric Deloffre and Jacques van den Heuvel. Paris 1979, chapter 30, p. 233.
}} Et alors nous \\ne pouvons mal tourner.}
\\
\TeiAbV{J’espère que cela sera comme cela et si je \\suis dans la necessité fatale d’user et \\ma couleur et ma toile et mon portemonaie \\saches bien que ce n’est pas encore \\par là que nous puissions perir.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Meme si de ton côté si tu uses ton \\portemonnaie et ce qu’il y a dedans \\c’est certes mauvais mais dis moi tranquillement: \\il n’y en a plus, alors il y en aura encore \\par ce que j’aurai fait avec.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais – me diras tu comme de juste – \\en attendant? En attendant – \\je ferai du dessin car c’est plus commode \\de ne faire que dessiner que de peindre.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Je te serre bien la main. Quelles \\journees que celles ci, non pas par \\les evenements\footnote[a]{\TeiAnchor{
Read: ‘not because anything special is going on’.
}} mais je sens tellement \\que toi comme moi nous ne sommes \\pas de la decadence ni des finis encore \\et ne le serons pas dans la suite.
}
\\
\TeiAbV{Mais tu sais je ne contredis pas aux \\critiques qui diront que mes tableaux \\ne sont pas – finis.\footnote[34]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh is referring here to Gustave Kahn\footnote{
Gustave Kahn

(1859-1936) French writer and art critic
}’s criticism of his paintings; \href{let594.xml#n-15}{see letter 594, n. 15.}

}} Je te serre la main \\ et à bientot.
}

\\
t. à t.

\\
Vincent

\\
J’ai moi aussi lu Cesarine de Richepin – j’aime bien ce que dit la femme dite toquée, \\la vie tout entière c’est des equations bien faites.\footnote[35]{\TeiAnchor{
In Jean Richepin\footnote{
Jean (Auguste-Jules) Richepin

(1849-1926) French writer
}’s 
Césarine
(1888), the title character, who is labelled as mad by those around her because of her promiscuous lifestyle, says: ‘Everything in life is resolved, on the whole, even the most extraordinary actions, by a series of careful equations’ (Tout se résout, en somme, dans la vie, même les actes les plus extraordinaires, par des équations bien faites) (see 4th ed. Paris 1888, p. 258).
}}

\selectlanguage{english}
\section*{Translation}

\marginpar{[1r:1]}
My dear Theo,

I already wrote to you early this morning,\footnote[1]{\TeiAnchor{
This was \href{let682.xml}{letter 682}.
}} then I went to continue working on a painting of a sunny garden.\footnote[2]{\TeiAnchor{

Path in the public garden (F 470 / JH 1582); \href{let682.xml}{see letter 682}. 
}} Then I brought it back — and went out again with a blank canvas and that’s done, too.\footnote[3]{\TeiAnchor{

Path in the public garden (F 471 / JH 1613). Van Gogh describes this painting later in the letter.
}} And now I feel like writing to you again.

\TeiAbIII{Because I’ve never had such good fortune; nature here is extraordinarily beautiful. Everything and everywhere. The dome of the sky is a wonderful blue, the sun has a pale sulphur radiance, and it’s soft and charming, like the combination of celestial blues and yellows in paintings by Vermeer of Delft\footnote{
Johannes (Jan) Vermeer

(1632-1675) Dutch artist
}. I can’t paint as beautifully as that, but it absorbs me so much that I let myself go without thinking about any rule.}

\TeiAbIII{That gives me 3 paintings of the gardens facing the house.\footnote[4]{\TeiAnchor{
As well as the two works referred to above, Van Gogh had a third painting of the park: The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578). \href{let681.xml}{See letter 681}.
}} Then the two cafés.\footnote[5]{\TeiAnchor{

The night café (F 463 / JH 1575) and Café terrace at night (F 467 / JH 1580).
}} Then the sunflowers.\footnote[6]{\TeiAnchor{

Sunflowers in a vase (F 453 / JH 1559), Sunflowers in a vase (F 459 / JH 1560), Sunflowers in a vase (F 456 / JH 1561) and Sunflowers in a vase (F 454 / JH 1562). 
}} Then Boch\footnote{
Eugène Guillaume Boch

(1855-1941) Belgian artist
}’s portrait, and mine.\footnote[7]{\TeiAnchor{

Eugène Boch (‘The poet’) (F 462 / JH 1574) and Self-portrait (F 476/ JH 1581).
}} Then the red sun over the factory\footnote[8]{\TeiAnchor{
This painting of a factory and a red sun is not known; cf. \href{let680.xml#n-10}{letter 680, n. 10.}

}} and the men unloading sand.\footnote[9]{\TeiAnchor{

Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558).
}} The old mill.\footnote[10]{\TeiAnchor{

The old mill (F 550 / JH 1577).
}} Leaving the other studies aside, you can see that some hard work has been done. 
\marginpar{[1v:2]}
}

\TeiAbIII{But my colours, my canvas, my wallet are completely exhausted today. The last painting, done with the last tubes on the last canvas, is a naturally green garden, is painted without green as such, with nothing but Prussian blue and chrome yellow. I’m beginning to feel quite different from what I was when I came here, I have no more doubts, I no longer hesitate to tackle something, and that could increase still further.}

\TeiAbIII{But what scenery! It’s a public garden where I am, just near the street of the good little ladies, and Mourier\footnote{
Christian Vilhelm Mourier-Petersen

(1858-1945) Danish artist
}, for example, never went there, whereas we used to walk in these gardens almost every day, but on the other side (there are 3 of them).\footnote[11]{\TeiAnchor{
Rue du Bout d’Arles ran from the Roubine du Roi Canal to rue des Récollets; the ‘maisons de tolérance’ (brothels) were in these two streets.  Van Gogh meant the public garden to the south-east of place Lamartine. \href{let604.xml#n-2}{See letter 604, n. 2,} for the other parks. 
}} But you’ll understand that it’s precisely that which gives a je ne sais quoi of Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
} to the place.\footnote[12]{\TeiAnchor{
An allusion to Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
}’s sensual nature, which Van Gogh had read about in the article ‘Boccace d’après ses oeuvres et les témoignages contemporains’ by Cochin\footnote{
Henry Cochin

(1854-1926) French writer
} discussed later in the letter (\TeiRefIII{see n. 15} below). Cochin said, among other things, that the young Boccaccio lived a dissipated life in Naples (p. 377).
}} That side of the garden is also, for the same reason of chastity or morality, empty of flowering shrubs such as the oleander. It’s ordinary plane trees, pines in tall clumps, a weeping tree and green grass. But it has such intimacy! There are gardens like that by Monet\footnote{
Claude Oscar Monet

(1840-1926) French artist
}. 
\marginpar{[1v:3]}
}

\TeiAbIII{As long as you can bear the burden of all the colours, canvas, money that I’m forced to spend, keep on sending me them. Because what I’m preparing will be better than the last consignment, and believe that we’ll gain rather than lose by it. If, that is, I manage to do an ensemble that will hold together. Which I’m trying to do.}

\TeiAbIII{But is it absolutely impossible for Thomas\footnote{
Jean Joseph Thomas

(1814-1898) seller of artists' materials in Paris
} to lend me two or three hundred francs on my studies? That would mean that I would earn over a thousand from them, because I couldn’t tell you enough, I’m thrilled, thrilled, thrilled with what I see.}

\TeiAbIII{And that gives you yearnings for autumn,\footnote[13]{\TeiAnchor{
An allusion to the chapter entitled ‘Les aspirations de l’automne’ in Michelet\footnote{
Jules Michelet

(1798-1874) French writer
}’s L’amour
; \href{let014.xml#n-19}{see letter 14, n. 19.}

}} a zest that means that time passes without your feeling it. Beware the morning after, beware the winter mistrals.}

\TeiAbIII{Today, while actually working, I thought a lot about Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
}. His letter is full of veneration for Gauguin\footnote{
Paul (Eugène Henri) Gauguin

(1848-1903) French artist
}’s talent — he says that he finds him so great an artist that it almost frightens him, and he finds everything that he, Bernard, does, bad in comparison with Gauguin. And you know that last winter Bernard was still trying to pick a quarrel with Gauguin.\footnote[14]{\TeiAnchor{
Nothing is known about a quarrel between Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
} and Gauguin\footnote{
Paul (Eugène Henri) Gauguin

(1848-1903) French artist
} in the winter of 1887-1888. The two artists had not got on well at their first meeting in Pont-Aven in 1886. Bernard wrote about this in 1895: ‘The welcome Mr Gauguin gave me was extremely frosty, and that year there was nothing but the strangest antipathy between us.’ (L’accueil que me fit M. Gauguin fut un des plus glacés, et cette année-là il ne se manifesta entre nous que la plus étrange antipathie.) See Bernard 1994, vol. 2, p. 71.
}} Ah well, whatever the case, and whatever happens, it’s very consoling that those artists are our friends, and I dare to believe will remain so, no matter how things turn out.}

\TeiAbIII{I have such luck with the house — with work — that I even dare believe that blessings won’t come singly, but that you’ll share them for your part, and have good luck too. Some time ago I read an article on Dante\footnote{

Dante Alighieri

(1265-1321) Italian poet
}, Petrarch\footnote{

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

(1304-1374) Italian poet
}, Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
}, Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
}, Botticelli\footnote{
Sandro Botticelli

(1444/45-1510) Italian artist
}; my God, what an impression that made on me, reading those people’s letters!\footnote[15]{\TeiAnchor{
This is the article by Henry Cochin\footnote{
Henry Cochin

(1854-1926) French writer
} mentioned above, ‘Boccace d’après ses oeuvres et les témoignages contemporains’, Revue des Deux Mondes 58 (15 July 1888), 3rd series, vol. 88, pp. 373-413 (see also \href{let665.xml#n-12}{letter 665, n. 12}). It discusses Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
}’s friendship with Francesco Petrarch\footnote{

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

(1304-1374) Italian poet
} at length. The author quotes from their letters several times. 
\TeiAbV{
Dante\footnote{

Dante Alighieri

(1265-1321) Italian poet
} is also referred to often in the article; Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
} is mentioned twice and Botticelli\footnote{
Sandro Botticelli

(1444/45-1510) Italian artist
} only once (and then very much in passing). Aside from Botticelli – whom Van Gogh added later – his summing up accords with that on the last page of the article: ‘Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Giotto, all the men were dead who had, after ten centuries, revived classical Latin glory’ (Dante, Petrarque, Boccace, Giotto, tous les hommes étaient morts, qui avaient, après dix siècles, revivifié l’antique gloire latine) (p. 413). }
}} 
\marginpar{[1r:4]} Now Petrarch was just near here, in Avignon,\footnote[16]{\TeiAnchor{

Petrarch\footnote{

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

(1304-1374) Italian poet
} spent much of his youth in Avignon, the residence of the popes. After studying in Montpellier and Bologna he returned there and remained for some considerable time. Avignon was important above all as the place where the poet met his muse Laura, on 6 April 1327 in the Church of St Claire.
}} and I see the same cypresses and oleanders.}

\TeiAbIII{I’ve tried to put something of that into one of the gardens, painted with thick impasto, lemon yellow and lemon green.\footnote[17]{\TeiAnchor{

The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578).
}} Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
} touched me the most — always suffering and always full of kindness and ardour as if he were already living in a world other than this.\footnote[18]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh based his remark about the sickly Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
} on Cochin\footnote{
Henry Cochin

(1854-1926) French writer
}’s article (‘Boccace d’après ses oeuvres et les témoignages contemporains’; \TeiRefIII{see n. 15} above); he also referred to the passage in question in \href{let665.xml}{letter 665}. It reads in full: ‘Giotto, ugly and sickly but radiating natural genius, was painting scenes from the Divine Comedy at the Château de l’Oeuf. The king, full of respect and admiration, spent his days with the painter, delighting in the brazen charm of his Florentine speech and putting up with the most caustic witticisms from him. He heaped honours on him and wanted to keep him in Naples and make him “the first man of his kingdom”.’ (Giotto, laid et chétif, mais rayonnant de génie naturel, peignait au château de l’OEuf des scènes de la Divine Comédie. Et le roi, plein de respect et d’admiration, passait ses journées auprès du peintre, prenant plaisir à la grâce hardie de son language florentin, souffrant de lui les saillies les plus mordantes, le comblant d’honneurs, voulant le retenir à Naples et en faire “le premier homme de son royaume”.) (p. 378).
}}
}

\TeiAbIII{
Giotto\footnote{

Giotto di Bondone

(1267/75-1337) Italian artist
} is extraordinary, anyway, and I feel him more than the poets: Dante\footnote{

Dante Alighieri

(1265-1321) Italian poet
}, Petrarch\footnote{

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)

(1304-1374) Italian poet
}, Boccaccio\footnote{
Giovanni Boccaccio

(1313-1375) Italian writer
}.}

\TeiAbIII{It always seems to me that poetry is more terrible than painting, although painting is dirtier and more damned annoying, in fact. And after all, the painter says nothing; he keeps quiet, and I like that even better.}

\TeiAbIII{My dear Theo, when you’ve seen the cypresses, the oleanders, the sun down here — and that day will come, don’t worry — you’ll think even more often of beautiful works by Puvis de Chavannes\footnote{
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

(1824-1898) French artist
}: Pleasant land
\footnote[19]{\TeiAnchor{

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes\footnote{
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

(1824-1898) French artist
}, Pleasant land, c. 1882 (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Mary Gertrude Abbey Fund) had been on show at the Puvis de Chavannes retrospective at Durand-Ruel’s in Paris from 20 November-20 December 1887 (cat. no. 83). Ill. 314.
}} and so many others.}

\TeiAbIII{Throughout the Tartarin side\footnote[20]{\TeiAnchor{
The character of Tartarin in Daudet\footnote{
Alphonse Daudet

(1840-1897) French writer
}’s eponymous novels, 
Tartarin sur les Alpes
and 
Tartarin de Tarascon , which are set in the south of France. \href{let583.xml#n-9}{See letter 583, n. 9.}

}} and the Daumier\footnote{
Honoré Daumier

(1808-1879) French artist
} side of this funny part of the world, where the good folk have the accent that you know, there’s already so much that’s Greek, and there’s the Venus of Arles,\footnote[21]{\TeiAnchor{
The marble statue ‘Venus of Arles’ is a Roman copy of an Aphrodite by Praxiteles from the end of the first century BC (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Cf. Baedeker 1889-2, p. 211. It was excavated in the Théâtre Antique in Arles in 1651 and given to Louis xiv for his palace at Versailles in 1684. The sculptor François Girardon restored the statue, adding arms and placing an apple in the goddess’s hand. The version Van Gogh saw in Arles is an early nineteenth-century plaster copy of the statue as restored by Girardon. Ill. 2246 (Musée de l’Arles antique, Documentation).
}} like the one of Lesbos,\footnote[22]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh was probably mistaken in the place name and meant the Venus de Milo (Melos) in the Louvre, from the first century BC, attributed to Alexandros of Antioch. Ill. 2248. Van Gogh might conceivably also be referring to the only other statue of Venus on display in the museum in Arles at the time: Head of a Goddess (Venus?). (Musée de l’Arles antique, Documentation).
}} and you can still feel that youthfulness, despite everything.}

\TeiAbIII{I don’t doubt in the very least that one day you too will know the south.}

\TeiAbIII{You’ll perhaps go to see Claude Monet\footnote{
Claude Oscar Monet

(1840-1926) French artist
} when he’s in Antibes,\footnote[23]{\TeiAnchor{

Monet\footnote{
Claude Oscar Monet

(1840-1926) French artist
} had painted landscapes in Antibes in the spring of 1888 and Theo had exhibited some of them; \href{let625.xml#n-5}{see letter 625, n. 5.}

}} or you’ll find some opportunity, anyway.}

\TeiAbIII{When the mistral’s blowing, though, it’s the very opposite of a pleasant land here, because the mistral’s really aggravating. But what a compensation, what a compensation, when there’s a day with no wind. What intensity of colours, what pure air, what serene vibrancy. 
\marginpar{[2r:5]} Tomorrow I’m going to draw until the colours arrive.\footnote[24]{\TeiAnchor{
This would be the paint he had ordered in \href{let677.xml}{letter 677}.
}} But now I’ve reached the point where I’ve made up my mind not to draw a painting in charcoal any more. There’s no point; you have to tackle the drawing with the colour itself in order to draw well.}

\TeiAbIII{Ah — the exhibition at the Revue Indépendante\footnote[25]{\TeiAnchor{
Theo had suggested that Vincent might exhibit at La Revue Indépendante: \href{let677.xml#n-16}{see letter 677, n. 16.}

}} — fine — but once and for all — we’re far too much smokers to put the cigar in our mouth the wrong way round.\footnote[26]{\TeiAnchor{

\href{let673.xml#n-6}{See letter 673, n. 6,} for this reference to Daudet\footnote{
Alphonse Daudet

(1840-1897) French writer
}’s 
L’immortel
.
}}
}

\TeiAbIII{We’ll be obliged to try to sell, in order to be able to do again, better, the same things sold; that’s because we’re in a lousy trade — but let’s look for something other than the joy of the town, which means grief at home.\footnote[27]{\TeiAnchor{
This proverb occurs in Daudet\footnote{
Alphonse Daudet

(1840-1897) French writer
}’s 
Numa Roumestan
. The novel, which Van Gogh had read in 1884 (\href{let439.xml#n-4}{see letter 439, n. 4}), ends with a lengthy passage about the Provencal saying ‘Gau de carriero, doulou d’ostau’ (‘Joie de rue, douleur de maison’), which is also the last sentence of the book.
}}
}

\TeiAbIII{This afternoon I had a select audience..... of 4 or 5 pimps and a dozen kids who found it particularly interesting to watch the colours come out of the tubes. Ah, well, that sort of audience — that’s fame, or rather, I have the firm intention of thumbing my nose at ambition and fame, like these kids and these ruffians from the banks of the Rhône and rue du Bout d’Arles. }

\TeiAbIII{I was at Milliet\footnote{
Paul Eugène Milliet

(1863-1943) French lieutenant of the Zouaves
}’s today; he’s going to come tomorrow, having extended his stay by 4 days. I’d like Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
} to go to do his military service in Africa, because he’d do fine things there, and I still don’t know what to say to him. He said he’d exchange his portrait for one of my studies.}

\TeiAbIII{But he said that he daren’t do Gauguin\footnote{
Paul (Eugène Henri) Gauguin

(1848-1903) French artist
}, as I’d asked him, because he feels too shy with Gauguin.\footnote[28]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh had received a letter from Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
} the previous day; \href{let682.xml}{see letter 682}.
}} Bernard\footnote{
Emile Bernard

(1868-1941) French artist and writer
} is actually so temperamental!! He’s sometimes crazy and mean, but I’m certainly not the one who has the right to blame him for that, because I know the same neurosis too much myself, and I know that he wouldn’t blame me either. If he went to see Milliet\footnote{
Paul Eugène Milliet

(1863-1943) French lieutenant of the Zouaves
} in Africa, Milliet would certainly make friends with him. Because Milliet’s very loyal as a friend, and makes love so easily that he almost has contempt for love. 
\marginpar{[2v:6]}
}

\TeiAbIII{What’s Seurat\footnote{
Georges Seurat

(1859-1891) French artist
} doing? I wouldn’t dare show him the studies I’ve already sent, but the ones of the sunflowers and the bars and the gardens, those I’d like him to see — I often think about his system, and yet I won’t follow it at all, but he’s an original colourist, and it’s the same thing for Signac\footnote{
Paul Signac

(1863-1935) French artist
}, but to a different degree; the pointillists have found something new, and I like them very much all the same. But I — I say so frankly — I’m returning more to what I was looking for before coming to Paris, and I don’t know if anyone before me has talked about suggestive colour. But Delacroix\footnote{
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix

(1798-1863) French artist
} and Monticelli\footnote{
Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli

(1824-1886) French artist
}, while not talking about it, did it.}

\TeiAbIII{But I’m again the way I was in Nuenen, when I made a vain attempt to learn music — even then — so strongly did I feel the connections there are between our colour and Wagner\footnote{
Richard Wagner

(1813-1883) German composer
}’s music.\footnote[29]{\TeiAnchor{
In 1912, in the magazine De Amsterdammer, Anton Kerssemakers\footnote{
Antonius (Anton) Cornelius Augustinus Kerssemakers

(1846-1924) tanner in Eindhoven, pupil of Van Gogh
} recalled: ‘He was always comparing painting with music, and so as to get a better understanding of the gradation of tones, he started to take piano lessons with an old music teacher, who was also an organist, in E[indhoven]. This didn’t last long, though, because during the lessons Van Gogh kept comparing the notes of the piano with Prussian blue and dark green or dark ochre to bright cadmium, and so the poor man thought he must be dealing with a madman and became so afraid of him that he stopped the lessons.’ Quoted in Verzamelde brieven 1973, vol. 3, p. 95. The music teacher was Hein van der Zande (1820-1903), according to Dimmen Gestel\footnote{
Dimmen Gestel

(1862-1945) printer in Eindhoven
} in Het Eindhovensch Dagblad, 10 October 1930. Charles Blanc\footnote{
Charles Blanc

(1813-1882) French writer
} had written in 
Les artistes de mon temps
: ‘Colour can be learned like music’ (Le coloris s’apprend comme la musique). See Blanc 1876, p. 62.
}} Now it’s true, I see in Impressionism the resurrection of 
Eugène Delacroix\footnote{
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix

(1798-1863) French artist
}, but the interpretations being both divergent and somewhat irreconcilable, it won’t be Impressionism that will formulate the doctrine. It’s for that reason that I remain among the Impressionists, because that says nothing and commits you to nothing. And being there as a pal, I don’t have to state my position.}

\TeiAbIII{My God, you have to play the fool in life; I ask for the time to study, and you, do you ask for anything other than that? But I feel that you must, like me, long to have the peace and quiet needed in order to study with an open mind. 
\marginpar{[2v:7]}
}

\TeiAbIII{And I’m so afraid of taking it away from you with my requests for money.}

\TeiAbIII{However, I do so many calculations, and actually today I found that for the ten metres of canvas I had calculated the colours correctly, except for one, the fundamental one of yellow. If all my colours run out at the same time, isn’t that proof that I can sense the relative proportions like a sleep-walker? It’s the way it is with drawing, I hardly measure, and in that I’m quite categorically opposed to Cormon\footnote{
Fernand Piestre Cormon

(1845-1924) French artist
}, who says that if he didn’t measure he would draw like a pig.}

\TeiAbIII{I think you did quite well, all the same, to buy so many stretching frames, because you have to have a certain number to be able to dry the canvases thoroughly, which preserves them, and I also have a whole lot of them here myself. But you mustn’t hesitate to take them off the stretching frames, so that everything doesn’t take up too much space.}

\TeiAbIII{Here I pay 1.50 francs for no. 30, 25, 20 stretching frames, and 1 franc for no. 15, 12, 10. If I have them made by the carpenter.\footnote[30]{\TeiAnchor{

L’indicateur marseillais 1888 lists 23 carpenters (menuisiers); we do not know who Van Gogh got to make his stretching frames.
}}
}

\TeiAbIII{As carpentry is very expensive here, Tanguy\footnote{
Julien François Tanguy (père Tanguy)

(1825-1894) seller of artists' materials in Paris
} could also supply them if he reckoned them at that price. I’m looking for a frame in light walnut, at 5 francs, for the square no. 30 canvas, and I think I’ll get it. A frame in heavy oak for the no. 10 canvas, portrait, also costs me 5 francs.\footnote[31]{\TeiAnchor{
By ‘the square no. 30 canvas’ and ‘the no. 10 canvas, portrait’ Van Gogh is referring in general to the canvas sizes for which he was seeking frames, although he did already have specific works in mind: The public garden (‘The poet’s garden’) (F 468 / JH 1578), which he sent to Theo in a walnut frame in May 1889 (\href{let777.xml}{see letter 777}), and Eugène Boch (‘The poet’) (F 462 / JH 1574), which he planned to hang in his bedroom (\href{let693.xml}{see letter 693}).
}}
}

\TeiAbIII{I’ve also had to order 5 no. 30 stretching frames for the new canvas,\footnote[32]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh had ordered 5 metres of canvas in \href{let680.xml}{letter 680}; in \href{let687.xml}{letter 687} he confirmed that he had received it.
}} which are already made and which I have to collect. That will prove to you that I can’t be without some money at this period of work. 
\marginpar{[2r:8]}
}

\TeiAbIII{There’s a consolation in that we’re always among raw materials, and aren’t speculating but only trying to produce.\footnote[33]{\TeiAnchor{
Cf. for this view the following passage in Voltaire\footnote{
François Marie Arouet (Voltaire)

(1694-1778) French writer
}’s 
Candide
: ‘Let’s work without thinking, said Martin, it is the only way to make life bearable’ (Travaillons sans raisonner, dit Martin; c’est le seul moyen de rendre la vie supportable). Voltaire, Romans et Contes. Ed. Frédéric Deloffre and Jacques van den Heuvel. Paris 1979, chapter 30, p. 233.
}} And then we can’t go wrong.}

\TeiAbIII{I hope it’ll be like that, and if I’m in the inevitable necessity of using up my colours and my canvas and my wallet, you can be sure that that’s not yet the way that we’re to perish.}

\TeiAbIII{Even if for your part you use up your purse and what’s in it, true, it’s bad, but say to me calmly: there’s nothing left, then there’ll be more, because of what I’ll have done with it.}

\TeiAbIII{But — you’ll say to me, rightly — in the meantime? In the meantime — I’ll draw, because it’s more convenient to do nothing but draw than to paint.}

\TeiAbIII{I shake your hand firmly. What days these are, not because of events, but I feel so strongly that we’re not decadents, you and I, and not finished yet, and won’t be, in time to come.}

\TeiAbIII{But you know that I don’t contradict the critics who will say that my paintings aren’t — finished.\footnote[34]{\TeiAnchor{
Van Gogh is referring here to Gustave Kahn\footnote{
Gustave Kahn

(1859-1936) French writer and art critic
}’s criticism of his paintings; \href{let594.xml#n-15}{see letter 594, n. 15.}

}} I shake your hand, and more soon. }

Ever yours,

Vincent

I’ve read Richepin\footnote{
Jean (Auguste-Jules) Richepin

(1849-1926) French writer
}’s Césarine too — I love what the so-called crazy woman says, all of life is well-constructed equations.\footnote[35]{\TeiAnchor{
In Jean Richepin\footnote{
Jean (Auguste-Jules) Richepin

(1849-1926) French writer
}’s 
Césarine
(1888), the title character, who is labelled as mad by those around her because of her promiscuous lifestyle, says: ‘Everything in life is resolved, on the whole, even the most extraordinary actions, by a series of careful equations’ (Tout se résout, en somme, dans la vie, même les actes les plus extraordinaires, par des équations bien faites) (see 4th ed. Paris 1888, p. 258).
}} 

\end{document}