To Emile Bernard. , on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888.

on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888

Metadata Source status: Original manuscript

Location: Collection Anne-Marie Springer

Date: This letter was written in reply to one from Bernard that mentions in letter 664 to Theo of 19 or 20 August. Both these letters must have been written at about the same time, but because the one to Theo says nothing about the plan for a sunflower series outlined here (ll. 58-60), we assume that the letter to Bernard is the later of the two, and we have therefore dated it on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888. The letter is the first of a series that were written during the period when Van Gogh was working on his decoration. The dating of some of the letters is somewhat arbitrary, but the sequence of letters 665 to 671 is definite. Van Gogh must have embarked on his sunflower series around 20 August. The plan is mentioned for the first time in the present letter, and work has only just started; he is also working on a study of thistles. Sunflowers and thistles are also mentioned in letter 666, but there Van Gogh refers to a letter he had had from Gauguin, which is not mentioned in this one. Letter 666 must therefore have been written after the present one (though probably not long after), so we have dated it Tuesday, 21 or Wednesday, 22 August. Letter 667 was enclosed with 666 and has consequently been given the same date. In letter 668 there is no further mention of the thistles and Van Gogh is working on a fourth painting of sunflowers. This letter must have preceded letter 669 because in that one the fourth and for the time being last in the series appears to be finished or nearly so. Van Gogh says in letter 668 that he expects to be strapped for cash by the end of the week (l. 51), which implies that the letter was written before the weekend; we have therefore dated it Thursday, 23 or Friday, 24 August. In letter 669 Van Gogh confirmed receipt of 50 francs, the fourth instalment of his allowance for August, so it can be dated on or about Sunday, 26 August (it emerges from letter 672 that the money arrived on Saturday); letter 670 has been given the same date on the assumption that it was enclosed with it. Letter 671, lastly, was written shortly before the end of the month, and must date from Wednesday, 29 or Thursday, 30 August 1888. By then Van Gogh was working on other studies.

Additional: Original [1r:1] Mon cher Bernard,

1 2 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888. je veux faire de la figure, de la figure & encore de la figure, cest plus fort que moi, cette serie de bipedes partir du bebe jusqu Socrate1 et de la femme noire de chevelure peau blanche jusqu la femme aux cheveux jaunes et le visage couleur de brique hl par le soleil. En attendant je fais surtout autre chse. Merci de ta lettre, cette fois ci jcris bien la hte et bien reint. Cela ma fait grand plaisir que tu ayes rejoint Gauguin. 4 Ah jai tout de mme une nouvelle figure6 qui est absolument une continuation de certaines etudes de ttes faites en Hollande, je te les ai un jour montrees avec un tableau de ce temps-l, des mangeurs de pommes de terre.7 Je voudrais pouvoir te le montrer.[1v:2] Cest toujours une tude o la couleur joue un tel rle que le blanc & noir du dessin ne saurait le rendre. Jai voulu ten envoyer un dessin tres grand et trs soign. Bon cela devenait tout autre chse tout en etant correct.8 Car encore une fois la couleur est suggestive de lair embras de la moisson du plein midi en pleine canicule et sans cela cest un autre tableau. Joserais croire que Gauguin et toi le comprendraient, mais comme ils vont trouver cela laid. Vous autres vous savez ce que cest quun paysan, combien cela sent le fauve lorsquon trouve quelquun de race. 11

1 Van Gogh is referring here to the type of old man he had recorded in his portraits of the postman Joseph Roulin2; see letter 652, n. 7. Van Gogh also hoped to paint Roulins newborn daughter Marcelle3. This passage is probably an allusion to the famous riddle from classical mythology that the sphinx of Thebes posed to Oedipus: What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at midday, and three feet in the evening? Man. 4 See letter 664, n. 2, for Bernard5s stay in Pont-Aven. 6 Van Gogh is referring to the portrait of a gardener that he had painted about a week before, Patience Escalier (The peasant) (F 443 / JH 1548). 7 In in the first months of 1885, Van Gogh had drawn and painted dozens of heads of peasants in preparation for what he regarded as his master piece, The potato eaters (F 82 / JH 764). 8 If Van Gogh did send a drawing, it has not survived. The only known drawing after the portrait, Patience Escalier (The peasant) (F 1460 / JH 1549), was sent to Theo with letter 663. Bernard9 probably did, though, get the drawing Patience Escalier (The peasant) (F 1461 / JH 1564), since its provenance goes back to Ambroise Vollard, who bought many works by Van Gogh from Bernard between 1894 and 1905. However, that drawing was made after the second portrait of Escalier10 (F 444 / JH 1563) which dates from later in August (see letter 671) and so cannot be the one referred to here. Pickvances theory that that drawing was sent with a letter from Van Gogh to Bernard of about 5 September that is now lost is therefore plausible. See exhib. cat. New York 1984, p. 167. 11 There is a comparable notion about the similarity between a peasant and a wild animal in Sensier12s biography To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888. 3

Jai aussi un dchargeur dun bateau de sable. c..d. il y a deux bateaux, rose violac, dans une eau verte vronese avec du sable gris jaune, des brouettes, des planches, un petit bonhomme bleu et jaune. [1v:3] Tout cela vu den haut dun quai surplombant le tout vol doiseau. Pas de ciel. Ce nest quune esquisse ou plutt une pochade faite en plein mistral.14 Ensuite, je cherche des chardons poussiereux avec grand essaim de papillons tourbillonnant dessus.15 Oh le beau soleil dici en plein t, cela tape la tte et je ne doute aucunment quon en devienne toqu. Or ltant dja auparavant je ne fais quen jouir. Jy songe de decorer mon atelier dune demi douzaine de tableaux de Tournesols . 16 Une dcoration o les chrmes crs ou rompus clateront sur des fonds divers bleus depuis le vronse le plus ple jusquau bleu de roi, encadrs de minces lattes peintes en mine orange. Des espces deffets de Vitraux deglise Gothique.18 [1r:4] Ah mes chers copains, 20 nous autres toqus, jouissons nous tout de mme de loeil nest ce pas. Hlas la nature se paye sur la bte et nos corps sont mprisables et une lourde charge parfois. Mais depuis of Millet13, which Van Gogh knew well. Writing of Millets attempts to depict the type, Sensier says: He was not at all afraid to make room in his rustic compositions for figures that were rough-looking, whose individual nature was somewhat crude or at least unpolished, with an expression that seems to admit that the human being is not always so very superior to the animal (Il ne craignait point de donner place dans ses compositions rustiques des figures dun aspect rude, dune individualit quelque peu grossire ou du moins mal dgrossie, dune expression qui semble avouer que ltre humain nest pas toujours prodigieusement au-dessus de lanimal). Sensier 1881, p. 355. Cf. exhib. cat. Paris 1998, p. 50. Van Gogh wrote race without an accent, but he could equally well have meant rac (distinguished). 14 Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558). The purplish pink in the painting has probably discoloured. 15 This study is not known. It is not Thistles (F 447 / JH 1550), which does not have a great swarm of butterflies. See also letter 659, n. 6. There could be a connection with the drawing Thistles by the roadside (F 1466 / JH 1552), although there is no swarm of butterflies there either. Dorn identified the study described here as Grass and butterflies (F 460 / JH 1676). See Dorn 1999, p. 44 (n. 7). However, there are no thistles in that painting, which Van Tilborgh anyway places in the Paris period. See cat. 2011. 16 In his idea for a decorative scheme Van Gogh may have been influenced in part by Bernard17, who had done something similar for his studio. See letter 596, n. 1. Van Gogh worked on his decoration for the studio and other rooms in from mid-August until the end of December 1888, starting with a series of paintings of sunflowers. He bore in mind the possibility that this integrated series (he spoke of an ensemble and a whole) could be shown outside the Yellow House, and considered exhibiting it in the offices of the Revue Indpendante. He bought frames for a number of the paintings, see letter 673, n. 16, and framed the sunflower canvases himself with strips of wood (see letter 776). See Dorn 1990 for a reconstruction of the evolution of the decoration and possible sources of inspiration for it. 18 Here Van Gogh cites one of Bernard19s sources of inspiration in order to lend weight to his argument. 20 This form of address tells us that Van Gogh counted on Bernard21s showing the letter to Gauguin22 (and possibly other people too). See also letter 632, n. 24. 4 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888.

Giotto, souffreteux personnage, 23 il en est ici. 26 Ah et tout de mme quelle jouissance de loeil et quel rire que le rire edent du vieux lion Rembrandt, la tte coiff dun linge, la palette la main.27 Que jaimerais pouvoir passer ces jours ci Pont Aven mais enfin je men console en ravisant des tournesols. Je te serre bien la main, bientt. t. t.

Translation [1r:1] My dear Bernard29, I want to do figures, figures and more figures, its stronger than me, this series of bipeds from the baby to Socrates30 31 and from the black-haired woman with white skin to the woman with yellow hair and a sunburnt face the colour of brick. Meanwhile, I mostly do other things. Thanks for your letter; this time Im writing in great haste and really worn out. Im very pleased that youve joined Gauguin34.35 Ah, I do have a new figure all the same,37 which is absolutely a continuation of certain studies of heads done in Holland; I showed you them once, with a painting from that time, potato eaters.38 I wish I could show it to you.[1v:2] Again its a study in which colour plays a role that the black and white of a drawing couldnt convey. I wanted to send you a very large and very carefully finished drawing of it. Well it turned into something entirely different, while still being correct.39

23 Van Gogh based his description of Giotto24 as a sickly character on Henry Cochin25, Boccace daprs ses oeuvres et les tmoignages contemporains, Revue des Deux Mondes, 58 (15 July 1888), 3rd series, vol. 88, pp. 373-413. Cochin described Giotto as ugly and sickly (laid et chtif) (p. 378). Cf. also letter 683, n. 18.

26 The sense of this sentence is not entirely clear. It is possible that Van Gogh intended to write ainsi (so) instead of ici (here), and it is also conceivable that he didnt finish the sentence. 27 See letter 649, n. 15, for Rembrandt28s Self-portrait at the easel . 29 Emile Bernard (1868-1941) French artist and writer 30 Socrates (469 BC-399 BC) Greek philosopher 31 Van Gogh is referring here to the type of old man he had recorded in his portraits of the postman Joseph Roulin32; see letter 652, n. 7. Van Gogh also hoped to paint Roulins newborn daughter Marcelle33. This passage is probably an allusion to the famous riddle from classical mythology that the sphinx of Thebes posed to Oedipus: What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at midday, and three feet in the evening? Man. 34 Paul (Eugne Henri) Gauguin (1848-1903) French artist 35 See letter 664, n. 2, for Bernard36s stay in Pont-Aven. 37 Van Gogh is referring to the portrait of a gardener that he had painted about a week before, Patience Escalier (The peasant) (F 443 / JH 1548). 38 In Nuenen in the first months of 1885, Van Gogh had drawn and painted dozens of heads of peasants in preparation for what he regarded as his master piece, The potato eaters (F 82 / JH 764). 39 If Van Gogh did send a drawing, it has not survived. The only known drawing after the portrait, Patience Escalier (The peasant) (F 1460 / JH 1549), was sent to Theo with letter 663. Bernard40 probably did, though, get the drawing Patience Escalier (The peasant) (F 1461 / JH 1564), since its provenance goes back to Ambroise Vollard, who bought many works by Van Gogh from Bernard between 1894 and 1905. However, that drawing was To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888. 5

Because once again the colour suggests the scorched air of harvest time at midday in the blistering heat, and without that its a different painting. I would dare to believe that you and Gauguin42 would understand it, but how ugly theyll find it! You fellows know what a peasant is, how much of the wild animal there is when you come across somebody pure-bred.43 I also have a man unloading a sand boat. That is, there are two boats, purplish pink, in Veronese green water, with yellow-grey sand, wheelbarrows, planks, a little blue and yellow man. [1v:3] All of it seen from the top of a quay overhanging everything in a birds-eye view. No sky. Its just a sketch, or rather, a rough sketch done out in the mistral.46 Next, Im attempting to do dusty thistles with a great swarm of butterflies swirling above them.47 Oh, the beautiful sun down here in high summer; it beats down on your head and I have no doubt at all that it drives you crazy. Now being that way already, all I do is enjoy it. Im thinking of decorating my studio with half a dozen paintings of Sunflowers.48 A decoration in which harsh or broken yellows will burst against various blue backgrounds, from the palest Veronese to royal blue, framed with thin laths painted in orange lead. Sorts of effects of stained-glass windows of a Gothic church.50 [1r:4] Ah, my dear pals,52 we crazy ones, lets anyway enjoy with our eyes, shall we? Alas, nature gets paid in kind, and our bodies are despicable and sometimes a heavy burden. But since Giotto55, a sickly character,56 thats the way things are.59 Oh, and nevertheless, what delight of the eye and what laughter, the toothless laughter of made after the second portrait of Escalier41 (F 444 / JH 1563) which dates from later in August (see letter 671) and so cannot be the one referred to here. Pickvances theory that that drawing was sent with a letter from Van Gogh to Bernard of about 5 September that is now lost is therefore plausible. See exhib. cat. New York 1984, p. 167. 42 Paul (Eugne Henri) Gauguin (1848-1903) French artist 43 There is a comparable notion about the similarity between a peasant and a wild animal in Sensier44s biography of Millet45, which Van Gogh knew well. Writing of Millets attempts to depict the type, Sensier says: He was not at all afraid to make room in his rustic compositions for figures that were rough-looking, whose individual nature was somewhat crude or at least unpolished, with an expression that seems to admit that the human being is not always so very superior to the animal (Il ne craignait point de donner place dans ses compositions rustiques des figures dun aspect rude, dune individualit quelque peu grossire ou du moins mal dgrossie, dune expression qui semble avouer que ltre humain nest pas toujours prodigieusement au-dessus de lanimal). Sensier 1881, p. 355. Cf. exhib. cat. Paris 1998, p. 50. Van Gogh wrote race without an accent, but he could equally well have meant rac (distinguished). 46 Quay with sand barges (F 449 / JH 1558). The purplish pink in the painting has probably discoloured. 47 This study is not known. It is not Thistles (F 447 / JH 1550), which does not have a great swarm of butterflies. See also letter 659, n. 6. There could be a connection with the drawing Thistles by the roadside (F 1466 / JH 1552), although there is no swarm of butterflies there either. Dorn identified the study described here as Grass and butterflies (F 460 / JH 1676). See Dorn 1999, p. 44 (n. 7). However, there are no thistles in that painting, which Van Tilborgh anyway places in the Paris period. See cat. Amsterdam 2011. 48 In his idea for a decorative scheme Van Gogh may have been influenced in part by Bernard49, who had done something similar for his studio. See letter 596, n. 1. Van Gogh worked on his decoration for the studio and other rooms in the Yellow House from mid-August until the end of December 1888, starting with a series of paintings of sunflowers. He bore in mind the possibility that this integrated series (he spoke of an ensemble and a whole) could be shown outside the Yellow House, and considered exhibiting it in the offices of the Revue Indpendante. He bought frames for a number of the paintings, see letter 673, n. 16, and framed the sunflower canvases himself with strips of wood (see letter 776). See Dorn 1990 for a reconstruction of the evolution of the decoration and possible sources of inspiration for it. 50 Here Van Gogh cites one of Bernard51s sources of inspiration in order to lend weight to his argument. 52 This form of address tells us that Van Gogh counted on Bernard53s showing the letter to Gauguin54 (and possibly other people too). See also letter 632, n. 24.

55 Giotto di Bondone (1267/75-1337) Italian artist 56 Van Gogh based his description of Giotto57 as a sickly character on Henry Cochin58, Boccace daprs ses oeuvres et les tmoignages contemporains, Revue des Deux Mondes, 58 (15 July 1888), 3rd series, vol. 88, pp. 373-413. Cochin described Giotto as ugly and sickly (laid et chtif) (p. 378). Cf. also letter 683, n. 18.

59 The sense of this sentence is not entirely clear. It is possible that Van Gogh intended to write ainsi (so) instead of ici (here), and it is also conceivable that he didnt finish the sentence. 6 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 21 August 1888.

Rembrandt60 the old lion, his head covered in a cloth, his palette in his hand.61 How Id like to spend these present days in Pont-Aven, but anyway, I console myself by reconsidering the sunflowers. I shake your hand firmly; more soon. Ever yours, Vincent

60 Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) Dutch artist 61 See letter 649, n. 15, for Rembrandt62s Self-portrait at the easel .