To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888

To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888.

Tuesday, 2 October 1888

Metadata Source status: Original manuscript

Location: Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. b598 a-c V/1962

Date: Date of postmark: 2 October 1888.

Additional: The envelope this letter came in has survived. On the front is the postmark ARLES BOUCHES DU RHONE 4E 2 OCT 88., and on the back FRAMERIES 4 OCTO 6-M 1888. Two postage stamps, one of 10 and one of 15 centimes. The address reads: Monsieur F. Bock/ artiste peintre/Chez M. Moriau/Rue de la Station/ Frameries (par Mons).

Original [1r:1] Mon cher ami Bock, Merci bien de votre lettre qui ma fait bien plaisir. Je vous en flicite de ne pas avoir hsit cette fois-ci et davoir attaqu le Borinage.1 Voil un champ o vous pourrez travailler votre vie durant tant le paysage extraordinaire que la ﬁgure. Les scloneuses4 en loques de fosse sont surtout superbes. Si vous allez jamais au Petit Wasmes voulez vous vous informer si Jean Baptiste Denis (cultivateur) et Joseph Quinet (charbonnier)5 y vivent encore et leur dire de ma part que je nai jamais oubli le Borinage et que jaurais toujours encore envie de le revoir. Maintenant jai vous

1 See letter 669, n. 16, for Boch2s stay in the Borinage. Van Gogh addressed the letter care of M. Moriau / Rue de la Station (see Additional details). This Moriau was Franois Eugne Morriaux3. He lived at 42 rue de la Station in Frameries, and had a tavern (AEM). 4 Also spelt sclauneuses. 5 When he died in 1895 the miner Joseph Quinez6, born in Wasmes, was living in rue Royale in Wasmes; he was married to Amlie Thibaut, with whom he had previously lived at number 39 rue de Louise (AEM).

1 2 To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888.

raconter du neuf c..d. que jai enfin meubl la maison et que jai de suite meubl une chambre coucher pour Gauguin aussi ou pour quiconque viendra. La maison est bien plus gaie maintenant quelle est meuble. Aprs jai travaill darrache pied car lautomne est sans vent et superbe. Aussi ai je en train 7 toiles de 30 carres . Tout dabord le caf de nuit o jai log, avec effet de lampes peint la [1v:2] nuit.7 3 vues du jardin public devant ma maison. En voici une de ces vues. Un buisson de cyprs ou de Cdre en boule. dun vert bouteille. Dans le gazon vert citronn. Derriere une range de lauriers roses et 2 figurines. Un ciel bleu de cobalt cru.8 Vous voyez que cest encore bien plus simple quauparavent. Puis des terres laboures, un paysage avec rien que les mottes de terre, les sillons couleur dun vieux sabot sous le ciel myosotys avec des flocons blancs.9 Puis une vue de ma maison et de lentourage ensoleill de souffre, le ciel cobalt dur et clair.10 Cela cest dun difficile! Puis une vue du caf sur la Place du forum o nous avions lhabitude daller, peint la nuit .11 Puis enfin une etude du Rhne , de la ville eclaire au gaz et se refletant dans la rivire bleue. Avec le ciel etoil dessus avec la Grande Ourse scintillement rose et vert sur le champ bleu de cobalt du ciel nocturne tandis que la lumiere de la ville et ses reflets brutals sont dun or rouge et dun vert bronz.[1v:3] Peint la nuit.12 Le jardin aux lauriers roses et au buisson en boule est empt comme de la barbotine.13 Votre portrait est dans ma chambre coucher avec celui de Milliet le zouave que je viens de

7 The night caf (F 463 / JH 1575). 8 The three no. 30 canvases of the park are The public garden (The poets garden) (F 468 / JH 1578), Path in the public garden (F 470 / JH 1582) and a painting he had previously described as a round cedar or cypress bush (689) and soon after this as the garden with the round bush and the oleanders (694). The letter sketch The public garden (The poets garden) (F - / JH 1584) is after this painting, which is now lost. 9 Ploughed fields (The furrows) (F 574 / JH 1586). 10 The Yellow House (The street) (F 464 / JH 1589). 11 Caf terrace at night (F 467 / JH 1580). 12 Starry night over the Rhne (F 474 / JH 1592). 13 For barbotine see letter 663, n. 7. To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888. 3 faire.14 Je voudrais bien vous prier de me faire un change dune de vos etudes des charbonnages. 15 attendez, je vous enverrai de mon ct dabord une tude alors, que17 je serai sr que cela en sera une qui vous paraitra tout inconnue. Car si vous voyiez les tudes de nuit vous aimeriez peut etre mieux cela que les etudes de soleil. Enfin laissez moi faire. Car jespre bien que nos rapports une fois commencs dureront toujours. Car tout ce que vous ferez va minteresser extraordinairement puisque jaime tellement ce triste pays du Borinage qui toujours me sera inoubliable. Si je viens Paris lanne prochaine alors je suis peu prs decid de pousser jusqu Mons. Et peutetre jusqu mon pays pour y prendre des endroits connus davance. Ainsi dans le Borinage Marcasse ou St Antoine au Petit Wasmes.18 Et puis la cour de lAgrappe chez vous Frameries. 19 Cest en somme dans le Borinage que jai pour la premire fois commenc travailler sur nature. Mais naturellement tout cela je lai depuis longtemps dtruit. Mais cela me remue le coeur quenfin tous ces endroits vont tre peints. Vous allez voir comme les ides vous viendront. Je vous ecris trs la hte mais je voulais rpondre de suite. [1r:4] Ci inclus un bien mauvais croquis de la nuit etoile. 20 Tous ces tableaux sont des toiles de 30 carres.22 Eussiez vous rest ici jusqu prsent vous auriez remport dautres etudes. Car je vous dis, la nature a t extraordinairement belle. Jai plus dune fois fait une toile de 30 dans la journe mais alors cetait que ds le matin jusquau coucher du soleil je nai boug de la seance que pour manger un morceau. Mon frre ma crit quil vous avait vu en passant. Eh bien lanne prochaine jespre bien que nous nous reverrons, noubliez surtout pas de mcrire votre adresse si vous changiez

14 Eugne Boch (The poet) (F 462 / JH 1574) and Paul Eugne Milliet (The lover) (F 473 / JH 1588). 15 The exchange with Boch16 occurred in June 1890; see letter 890. 17 Read: dont. 18 See letter 151, n. 2, for the Marcasse/Saint-Antoine mine. 19 See letter 151, n. 3, for the Agrappe coal mine. 20 The letter sketch Starry night over the Rhne (F - / JH 1594), after the painting of the same title (see n. 8 above). On the verso there are lines of writing that have been crossed out, a scrap of a letter to Paul Gauguin21 that was never sent. See RM16 and Jansen et al. 2000. 22 Aside from Caf terrace at night (n. 7 above) and the two portraits (n. 10 above), which measure 80.7 x 65.3 cm, 60 x 45 cm and 60 x 49 cm respectively, all the paintings Van Gogh mentions are no. 30 canvases (roughly 92 x 73 cm). 4 To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888.

de place ou de me donner au juste votre adresse permanente, la Louvire si jai bonne memoire. 23 Car cela sera excellent de travailler avec continuit dans les charbonnages et puis, pour voir tout autre chse, venir au pays des lauriers roses et du soleil de souffre. Est ce que votre soeur25 va faire les charbonniers aussi. Il y a bien l du travail pour deux. Jestime quil soit bien heureux pour vous que vous soyez deux pour faire de la peinture dans votre maison. Eh bien je dois aller travailler dans la vigne prs de Mont Major. Elle est toute pourpr jaune vert sous le ciel bleu, un beau motif de couleur.27 Bonne poigne de main et bon courage et bien du succes pour le travail. t. v. Vincent Excusez ma grande hte, jai meme pas le temps de relire la lettre.[2r:5] [2v:6] [3r:7] Translation [3v:8] My dear friend Boch28, [1r:1] Many thanks for your letter, which gave me great pleasure. I congratulate you on not having hesitated this time and on having tackled the Borinage.29 Thats a field in which youll be able to work for the whole of your life, the extraordinary landscape as well as the human figure! The female thrutchers in pit-rags, in particular, are superb. If you ever go to Petit-Wasmes, would you find out if Jean Baptiste Denis32 (farmer) and Joseph Quinez33 (miner)34 are still living there, and tell them on my behalf that Ive never forgotten the Borinage, and that Ill always have a wish to see it again? Now I have to tell you some news, that is that Ive at last furnished the house and that I immediately furnished a bedroom for Gauguin36 as well, or for whoever will come. The house is much more cheerful now that its furnished. Afterwards I worked at full tilt, because the autumn is windless and superb. And so I have 7 square no. 30 canvases on the go. [1v:2] First of all the night caf where I stayed, with lamp effects painted at night.37 3 views of the public garden in front of my house. Heres one of those views. A round cypress or Cedar bush in bottle green. In the lemony green lawn. 23 Bochs parents24 lived in La Louvire. 25 Anna Boch26. 27 As we learn from letter 694, Van Gogh was working on The green vineyard (F 475 / JH 1595). 28 Eugne Guillaume Boch (1855-1941) Belgian artist 29 See letter 669, n. 16, for Boch30s stay in the Borinage. Van Gogh addressed the letter care of M. Moriau / Rue de la Station (see Additional details). This Moriau was Franois Eugne Morriaux31. He lived at 42 rue de la Station in Frameries, and had a tavern (AEM). 32 Jean Baptiste Denis (1825-1893) Van Gogh’s landlord in Petit-Wasmes 33 Joseph Quinez (1828-1895) mine-worker in Petit-Wasmes 34 When he died in 1895 the miner Joseph Quinez35, born in Wasmes, was living in rue Royale in Wasmes; he was married to Amlie Thibaut, with whom he had previously lived at number 39 rue de Louise (AEM). 36 Paul (Eugne Henri) Gauguin (1848-1903) French artist 37 The night caf (F 463 / JH 1575). To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888. 5

At the back, a row of oleanders and 2 small figures. A blue sky in raw cobalt.38 You can see that its much simpler than before. And ploughed fields, a landscape with nothing but clods of earth, the furrows the colour of an old clog under the forget-me-not sky with white flecks.39 And a view of my house and its surroundings under a sulphur sun, the sky hard, bright cobalt.40 Thats a difficult one! And a view of the caf on place du Forum, where we used to go, painted at night.41 And lastly, a study of the Rhne, of the town under gaslight and reflected in the blue river. With the starry sky above with the Great Bear with a pink and green sparkle on the cobalt blue field of the night sky, while the light of the town and its harsh reflections are of a red gold and a green tinged with bronze. Painted at night.42 [1v:3] The garden with the oleanders and the round bush is impasted like barbotine.43 Your portrait is in my bedroom, with the one of Milliet44 the Zouave that Ive just done.45 Id very much like to ask you to do an exchange with me of one of your studies of the coal-mines.46 Wait, Ill send you a study first then, which Im sure will be one of those that will seem entirely unfamiliar to you. Because if you saw the night studies, youd perhaps like them better than the studies of sunlight. Well, let me decide. Because I sincerely hope that our relationship, once embarked upon, will last for good. Because everything you do will be of extraordinary interest to me, since I so much love that sad region of the Borinage, which will always be unforgettable to me. If I come to Paris next year, then Im more or less determined to push on as far as Mons. And perhaps to my own country, to do places there that I knew before. Thus, in the Borinage, Marcasse or St-Antoine at Petit-Wasmes.48 And then the Cour de lAgrappe, at your place in Frameries.49 In short, it was in the Borinage that I began to work from nature for the first time. But I destroyed all that long ago, of course. But it touches my heart that in the end all these places are going to be painted. Youll see how the ideas will come to you. Im writing to you in great haste, but I wanted to reply right away. [1r:4] Included herewith a very bad croquis of the starry night.50 All these paintings are square no. 30 canvases.52 Had you stayed here until now youd have taken away other studies. Because I tell you, nature has been extraordinarily beautiful. More than once Ive done a no. 30 canvas in a day, but then it

38 The three no. 30 canvases of the park are The public garden (The poets garden) (F 468 / JH 1578), Path in the public garden (F 470 / JH 1582) and a painting he had previously described as a round cedar or cypress bush (689) and soon after this as the garden with the round bush and the oleanders (694). The letter sketch The public garden (The poets garden) (F - / JH 1584) is after this painting, which is now lost. 39 Ploughed ﬁelds (The furrows) (F 574 / JH 1586). 40 The Yellow House (The street) (F 464 / JH 1589). 41 Caf terrace at night (F 467 / JH 1580). 42 Starry night over the Rhne (F 474 / JH 1592). 43 For barbotine see letter 663, n. 7.

44 Paul Eugne Milliet (1863-1943) French lieutenant of the Zouaves 45 Eugne Boch (The poet) (F 462 / JH 1574) and Paul Eugne Milliet (The lover) (F 473 / JH 1588). 46 The exchange with Boch47 occurred in June 1890; see letter 890. 48 See letter 151, n. 2, for the Marcasse/Saint-Antoine mine. 49 See letter 151, n. 3, for the Agrappe coal mine. 50 The letter sketch Starry night over the Rhne (F - / JH 1594), after the painting of the same title (see n. 8 above). On the verso there are lines of writing that have been crossed out, a scrap of a letter to Paul Gauguin51 that was never sent. See RM16 and Jansen et al. 2000. 52 Aside from Caf terrace at night (n. 7 above) and the two portraits (n. 10 above), which measure 80.7 x 65.3 cm, 60 x 45 cm and 60 x 49 cm respectively, all the paintings Van Gogh mentions are no. 30 canvases (roughly 92 x 73 cm). 6 To Eugne Boch. Arles, Tuesday, 2 October 1888.

was the case that from morning till sunset I didnt move from the sitting except to eat a bite. My brother wrote to me that he had seen you in passing. Ah well, next year I sincerely hope that well meet again; above all dont forget to write me your address if you move house, or give me your precise permanent address at la Louvire, if I remember rightly.53 Because it will be excellent to work with continuity in the coal-ﬁelds and then, in order to see something entirely diﬀerent, to come to the region of oleanders and the sulphur sun. Is your sister55 56 also going to do miners? Theres certainly work for two people there. I believe that its very fortunate for you that the two of you both do painting in your house. Ah well, I have to go to work in the vineyard, near Montmajour. Its all purplish yellow green under the blue sky, a beautiful, colour motif.58 Good handshake and good luck, and much success in your work. Ever yours, Vincent [2r:5] Pardon my great haste; I dont even have time to re-read the letter. [2v:6] [3r:7] [3v:8]

53 Bochs parents54 lived in La Louvire. 55 Anna Boch (1848-1936) Belgian artist 56 Anna Boch57. 58 As we learn from letter 694, Van Gogh was working on The green vineyard (F 475 / JH 1595).