To Emile Bernard. Arles, on Or About Tuesday, 19 June 1888

To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888.

on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888

Metadata Source status: Original manuscript

Location: New York, Thaw Collection, The Morgan Library & Museum

Date: Vincent told Theo on 21 June that he had received a letter from Bernard (see letter 629). Because he says in the present letter that he is replying to Bernards letter immediately (l. 2), it must precede letter 629. He has also progressed further with The sower than he could report in letter 627, which was written around 17 June, and he mentions a new wheatﬁeld. This suggests that a couple of days must have passed since he wrote that letter, so we have dated the present one on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888.

Additional: Original [1r:1] mon cher Bernard Pardonne moi si jcris bien la hte, je crains que ma lettre ne sera point lisible mais je veux te rpondre tout de suite. Sais tu que nous avons t trs btes, Gauguin, toi et moi, de ne pas aller dans un mme endroit. Mais lorsque Gauguin est parti moi jetais pas encore sr de pouvoir partir. Et lorsque toi tu es parti il y avait cet aﬀreux argent du voyage et les mauvaises nouvelles que javais donner des frais ici qui lont empech. Si nous tions parti tous ensemble vers ici ce naurait pas t si bte car trois nous eussions fait le mnage chez nous. Et maintenant que je suis un peu mieux orient je commence entrevoir des avantages ici. Pour moi, je me porte mieux ici que dans le nord je travaille mme en plein midi en plein soleil sans ombre aucune dans les champs de bl et voil, jen jouis comme une cigale. Mon dieu si 25 ans jeusse connu ce pays au lieu dy venir 35 cette epoque jetais enthousiasm pour le gris ou lincolore plutt. Je revais toujours de Millet et puis javais des connaissances en Hollande dans la catgorie de peintres Mauve, Israels. 1

1 Van Gogh regarded Israls2s work as the counterpart of Millet3s. Nothing is known about any contacts between Van Gogh and Israls, although they very probably met when Vincent was working in the Goupil gallery in The Hague (in July 1883 he quoted something Israls said; see letter 361). Israls sold much of his work through Goupil.

1 2 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888.

Voici croquis dun semeur.4 Grand terrain de mottes de terre labours, franchement violet en grande partie. Champ de bl mr dun ton docre jaune avec un peu de carmin. Le ciel jaune de chrome I presque aussi clair que le soleil lui-meme qui est jaune de chrome I avec un peu de blanc tandis que le reste du ciel est jaune de chrome 1 et 2 melangs, trs jaune donc. la blouse du semeur est bleue et son pantalon blanc. toile de 25 carre. il y a bien des rappels de jaune dans le terrain, des tons neutres, rsultantes du mlange du violet avec le jaune, mais je me suis un peu foutu de la vrit de la couleur. faire des images naives dalmanach plutt de vieil almanach de campagne o la grle, la neige, la pluie, le beau temps sont reprsents dune faon tout fait primitive. ainsi quAnquetin avait si bien trouv sa moisson. 5 Je ne te cache pas que je ne dteste pas la campagne y ayant t elev, des bouffes de souvenirs dautrefois, des aspirations vers cet infini dont le Semeur, la gerbe sont les symboles, menchantent encore comme [1v:2] autrefois. 9 Mais quand donc ferai je le ciel toil, ce tableau qui toujours me proccupe10 helas, helas, cest bien comme dit lexcellent copain Cyprien dans en mnage de J. K. Huysmans: les plus beaux tableaux sont ceux que lon rve en fumant des pipes dans son lit mais quon ne fait pas.12 Sagit pourtant de les attaquer quelquincomptent quon se sente vis vis des ineffables perfections de splendeurs glorieuses de la nature. Mais comme je voudrais voir ltude que tu as fait au bordel. 14

4 The letter sketch Sower with setting sun (F - / JH 1472) was done after the painting of the same name (F 422 / JH 1470). Van Gogh described and sketched it at an earlier stage; he worked on it again soon afterwards (see letter 634). 5 Louis Anquetin6, The harvest (The mower at noon), 1887 (private collection). Ill. 508. Bernard7 described it as one of Anquetins Japanese abstractions (abstractions Japonaises), and regarded it as one of the first experiments with Cloisonnism. The painting hung in the exhibition staged by Van Gogh in Restaurant du Chalet, and in the offices of the Revue Indpendante in January 1888. See Bernard 1994, vol. 1, pp. 64, 241, and letter 575, n. 9. Van Goghs Arles seen from the wheatfields (F 545 / JH 1477) followed the lead set by Anquetins painting. Van Gogh likens Anquetins painting to naive almanac pictures old country almanacs. Edouard Dujardin8 had made a similar link between Anquetins work and the images dEpinal (cheap, coloured, popular prints) in his article in La Revue Indpendante to which Van Gogh referred in letter 620. 9 Van Gogh is referring here to his Nuenen period from late 1883 to late 1885, when he tried to express the symbolism of the countryside and peasant life. 10 Van Gogh had written to Bernard11 about this subject before (see letter 596). 12 In Joris-Karl Huysmans13s novel En mnage (1881), the character Cyprien remarks: And what about the paintings? The painter scratched his beard with his long fingers. The paintings, pah, he said, its sometimes good to muse about those you will never do, in bed, of an evening, when youre not asleep! ( Alors les tableaux? Le peintre se frotta la barbe de ses longs doigts. Les tableaux, peuh, dit-il, cest quelquefois bon de songer ceux quon ne fera jamais, au lit, le soir, quand on ne dort pas!) (see 3rd ed. Paris 1881, chapter 16, p. 346). The novel is set in an artistic milieu, and revolves around a broken marriage, the day-to-day worries of an old bachelor, the loneliness of the search for love, the need for a woman in short the desolateness of life. Cf. Sund 1992, p. 253 (n. 27). 14 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888. 3 je me fais des reproches nen pas finir de ne pas encore avoir fait de figures ici. Voici encore un paysage. 16 Soleil couchant? lever de lune? Soir det en tout cas. Ville violette, astre jaune, ciel bleu vert, les bls ont tous les tons: vieil or, cuivre, or vert, or rouge, or jaune, bronze jaune, vert, rouge. toile de 30 carre. je lai peint en plein mistral. mon chevalet etait fix en terre avec des piquets de fer, procd que je te recommande. On enfouit les pieds du chevalet et puis on enfonce cot un piquet de fer long de 50 centimtres. on attache le tout avec des cordes, vous pouvez ainsi travailler dans le vent. Voici ce que jai voulu dire pour le blanc et le noir. 17 prenons le Semeur. le tableau est coup en deux, une moitie est jaune, le haut, le bas est violet. eh bien le pantalon blanc repose loeil et le distrait19 au moment o le contraste simultan21 excessif de jaune et de violet lagacerait. Voil ce que jai voulu dire. [2r:3] Je connais ici un sous-lieutenant des zouaves nomm Milliet. je lui donne des leons de dessin avec mon cadre perspectif22 et il commence faire des dessins ma foi jai vu bien pire que a et il a du zle pour apprendre, a t au Tonkin &c. Celui-l va partir mois doctobre pour lAfrique. 23 Si tu tais dans les zouaves il te prendrait avec lui et te garantirait une large marge de libert relative pour faire de la peinture si toutefois tu laiderais un peu dans ses manigences artistiques lui. Cela peut il ttre de quelquutilit. En cas quoui fais le moi savoir aussitt possible . 25 Une raison de travailler cest que les toiles valent de largent. tu me diras que dabord cette raison est bien prosaque,

Bernard15 sent him a drawing of a brothel soon afterwards, which Vincent sent on to Theo, saying: its probable that he has a more ﬁnished painted study of it (letter 630). Bernards drawing Brothel scene (see letter 630, n. 4) was thus probably based on that study of a brothel. However, no such painted version is known today. 16 The letter sketch Wheatﬁeld with setting sun (F - / JH 1474) is after the painting of the same name F 465 / JH 1473. 17 This is a subject that Van Gogh had raised in his previous letter to Bernard18 (622), who had presumably asked him to explain it in more detail. 19 This form of words is similar to that used by Charles Blanc20 in his Grammaire des arts du dessin when he wrote that, when using bold colours, white can serve to rest the eye, to refresh it, by moderating the dazzling brilliance of the whole spectacle ( reposer loeil, le rafrachir, en modrant lblouissant clat du spectacle entier). See Blanc 1870, p. 609. Van Gogh later made the trousers blue. 21 See letter 536, n. 28 for the concept of simultaneous contrast. 22 For Van Goghs knowledge and use of a perspective frame, see letter 235, n. 10.

23 Paul Eugne Milliet24 was due to leave for Guelma in Algeria on 1 November 1888. Cf. letters 714 and 716. 25 Van Gogh drew a box around ll. 85-93. 4 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888. puis que tu doutes que cela soit vrai. Cest pourtant vrai. Une raison de ne pas travailler cest que les toiles & couleurs ne font que nous coter des sous en attendant. Les dessins cependant ne nous cotent pas cher. Gauguin sembte aussi Pont Aven, se plaint comme toi de lisolement. Si tu allais le voir mais je nen sais rien sil y restera et suis port croire quil a lintention daller Paris. il dit quil croyait que tu serais venu Pont Aven. Mon dieu si nous tions ici tous les trois. Tu me diras que cest trop loin. Bon, mais en hiver puisquici on peut travailler dehors toute lanne. Voil ma raison pour aimer ce pays ci, davoir moins redouter le froid, qui en empchant mon sang de circuler mempche de penser, de faire quoi que ce soit. Tu pourras en juger lorsque tu seras soldat. Ta mlancolie sen ira, laquelle pourrait rudement bien venir de ce que tu as trop peu de sang ou le sang vici, ce que je ne pense pourtant pas. Cest ce sacr sale vin de Paris et la sale graisse des biftecks qui vous font cela mon dieu jetais arriv un etat de chses que chez moi le sang ne marchait plus du tout, mais ce quon appelle point du tout la lettre. Seulement, au bout de 4 semaines dici26 cela sest remis en marche, mais mon cher copain cette mme poque jai eu une attaque de mlancolie comme la tienne, de laquelle jeusse autant souffert que toi si ce netait que je la saluais avec grand plaisir comme signe que jallais guerir ce qui est aussi arriv.[2v:4] Au lieu donc de retourner Paris, restes en pleine campagne car tu as besoin de forces pour sortir comme il faut de cette preuve daller en Afrique. Or plus que tu te fais du sang et du bon sang avant, mieux cest car l-bas dans la chaleur on sen fabrique peuttre plus difficilement. Faire de la peinture et baiser beaucoup est pas compatible, le cerveau sen affaiblit, voil ce qui est bien emmerdant. 27 Le symbole de Saint Luc, le patron des peintres, est comme tu sais un boeuf , il faut donc tre patient comme un boeuf28 si lon veut labourer dans le champ artistique. Mais les taureaux sont bien heureux de ne pas avoir travailler dans la sale peinture. Mais ce que je voulais dire est ceci. aprs la priode de mlancolie tu seras plus fort30 quauparavant, ta sant reprendra et tu trouveras la nature environnante tellement belle que tu nauras plus dautre dsir que de faire de la peinture. Je crois que ta poesie changera encore aussi dans le mme sens quen peinture. tu es aprs des choses excentriques arriv en faire qui ont un calme egyptien et une grande simplicit. Que lheure est donc brve }

26 Read: ici. 27 Van Gogh was preoccupied with the relationship between social or artistic ambitions and creativity on the one hand, and sexual activity and procreation on the other. He admired men who were very active sexually or who had families, but believed that he himself had to forgo these beneﬁts in the interests of his art. 28 The notion that a painter had to have the patience of an ox was based on a saying (unsourced) of Gustave Dor29s, as we learn from letter 400. 30 Van Gogh originally wrote plus boeuf (more of an ox) after seras. To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888. 5

Quon passe en aimant } Cest moins quun instant } Un peu plus quun rve : } Le temps nous enlve } notre enchantement. } Cest pas du Baudelaire31 cela, je ne sais mme pas de qui cest, ce sont les paroles dune chanson dans le Nabab de Daudet, 35 voil o je lai pris mais est-ce que cela ne dit pas la chse comme un haussement dpaule de vraie Dame . Jai lu de ces jours ci Madame Chrysantme de Pierre Loti , cela donne des notes intressantes sur le Japon.38 Mon frre a dans ce moment une exposition de Claude Monet, je voudrais bien les voir. Entre autres Guy de Maupassant42 y tait venu et a dit que dornavant il reviendrait souvent au Boulevard Montmartre. Je dois aller peindre donc je finis probablement je tcrirai de nouveau sous peu. Je te demande mille pardons de navoir pas suffisamment affranchi la lettre, je lavais pourtant affranchie la poste et ce nest pas la premire fois que cela marrive ici davoir, en demandant la poste mme , en cas de doute, 44 t tromp en affranchissant. Tu ne te fais pas dide du laisser aller, de la nonchalance des gens ici. Enfin, tu verras sous peu tout cela de tes propres yeux en Afrique. merci de ta lettre, jespre tcrire bientt un moment o je serai moins press. Poigne de main. t. t. Vincent

Translation [1r:1] My dear Bernard45, Forgive me if I write in great haste; I fear that my letter wont be at all legible, but I want to reply to you right away. Do you know that weve been very foolish, Gauguin46, you and I, in not all going to the same place? But when Gauguin left, I wasnt yet sure of being able to leave. And when you left, there

31 Van Gogh mentions the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire32 because he knew that he was an important figure for Bernard33, with his aspiration to become a poet. Bernards veneration of Baudelaire, which Van Gogh did not share, is very apparent in his correspondence with his mother34, who also wrote poetry. With thanks to Fred Leeman. 35 Taken from Alphonse Daudet36, Le Nabab (chapter 22), where it is described as a melancholy Lied (un lied mlancolique). Van Gogh writes un instant where Daudet has un moment. Daudet took the lines from a poem by Armand Silvestre37 that Jules Massenet set to music in his cycle Pome davril (1866). See Daudet 1986-1994, vol. 2, pp. 804, 1395. 38 Pierre Loti39s novel Madame Chrysanthme (1888) is set in Nagasaki. A French officer marries the Japanese Kikou- san, or Madame Chrysanthme. In reality the marriage is a paid, temporary concubinage. The Frenchman has no real feelings of love for her; it is more a question of his amazement at how doll-like she is. Loti describes the setting and the customs. The underlying message is that it is difficult for Europeans to penetrate the mysterious closed nature and morals of the Japanese, or the artificial refinement of objects. Van Gogh probably read an illustrated version that he borrowed from Milliet40. The way in which he portrayed himself in Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581) could derive from an illustration of bonzes in the edition of Madame Chrysanthme published in Paris in 1888 by Calmann-Lvy. See Kdera 1990, p. 56. It emerges from letter 718 that Milliet gave Gauguin41 this copy of the book in November 1888 in exchange for a drawing. 42 Theo had written to tell Vincent about his meeting with Guy de Maupassant43. See letter 625, n. 7.

44 Read: ayant un doute. 45 Emile Bernard (1868-1941) French artist and writer 46 Paul (Eugne Henri) Gauguin (1848-1903) French artist 6 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888.

was that dreadful money for the fare, and the bad news I had to give about the expenses here, which prevented it. If wed all left for here together it wouldnt have been so foolish, because the three of us would have done our own housekeeping. And now that Ive found my bearings a little more, Im beginning to see the advantages here. For myself, Im in better health here than in the north I even work in the wheatfields at midday, in the full heat of the sun, without any shade whatever, and there you are, I revel in it like a cicada. My God, if only Id known this country at 25, instead of coming here at 35 in those days I was enthusiastic about grey, or rather, absence of colour. I was always dreaming about Millet47, and then I had acquaintances in Holland in the category of painters like Mauve48, Israls49.50 Heres croquis of a sower.53 Large field with clods of ploughed earth, mostly downright violet. Field of ripe wheat in a yellow ochre tone with a little crimson. The chrome yellow 1 sky almost as bright as the sun itself, which is chrome yellow 1 with a little white, while the rest of the sky is chrome yellow 1 and 2 mixed, very yellow, then. The sowers smock is blue, and his trousers white. Square no. 25 canvas. There are many repetitions of yellow in the earth, neutral tones, resulting from the mixing of violet with yellow, but I could hardly give a damn about the veracity of the colour. Better to make naive almanac pictures old country almanacs, where hail, snow, rain, fine weather are represented in an utterly primitive way. The way Anquetin54 got his Harvest so well.55 I dont hide from you that I dont detest the countryside having been brought up there, snatches of memories from past times, yearnings for that infinite of which the Sower, the sheaf, are the [1v:2] symbols, still enchant me as before.59 But when will I do the starry sky, then, that painting thats always on my mind?60 Alas, alas, its just as our excellent pal Cyprien says, in En mnage by J. K. Huysmans62 : the most beautiful paintings are those one dreams of while smoking a pipe in ones bed, but which one doesnt make.63 But its a matter of attacking them nevertheless, however incompetent one may feel vis--vis the

47 Jean-Franois Millet (1814-1875) French artist 48 Anton Mauve (1838-1888) Dutch artist 49 Jozef Israls (1824-1911) Dutch artist 50 Van Gogh regarded Israls51s work as the counterpart of Millet52s. Nothing is known about any contacts between Van Gogh and Israls, although they very probably met when Vincent was working in the Goupil gallery in The Hague (in July 1883 he quoted something Israls said; see letter 361). Israls sold much of his work through Goupil. 53 The letter sketch Sower with setting sun (F - / JH 1472) was done after the painting of the same name (F 422 / JH 1470). Van Gogh described and sketched it at an earlier stage; he worked on it again soon afterwards (see letter 634). 54 Louis Emile Anquetin (1861-1932) French artist 55 Louis Anquetin56, The harvest (The mower at noon), 1887 (private collection). Ill. 508. Bernard57 described it as one of Anquetins Japanese abstractions (abstractions Japonaises), and regarded it as one of the first experiments with Cloisonnism. The painting hung in the exhibition staged by Van Gogh in Restaurant du Chalet, and in the offices of the Revue Indpendante in January 1888. See Bernard 1994, vol. 1, pp. 64, 241, and letter 575, n. 9. Van Goghs Arles seen from the wheatfields (F 545 / JH 1477) followed the lead set by Anquetins painting. Van Gogh likens Anquetins painting to naive almanac pictures old country almanacs. Edouard Dujardin58 had made a similar link between Anquetins work and the images dEpinal (cheap, coloured, popular prints) in his article in La Revue Indpendante to which Van Gogh referred in letter 620. 59 Van Gogh is referring here to his Nuenen period from late 1883 to late 1885, when he tried to express the symbolism of the countryside and peasant life. 60 Van Gogh had written to Bernard61 about this subject before (see letter 596). 62 Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907) French writer 63 In Joris-Karl Huysmans64s novel En mnage (1881), the character Cyprien remarks: And what about the paintings? The painter scratched his beard with his long fingers. The paintings, pah, he said, its sometimes good to muse about those you will never do, in bed, of an evening, when youre not asleep! ( Alors les tableaux? Le peintre se frotta la barbe de ses longs doigts. Les tableaux, peuh, dit-il, cest quelquefois bon de songer ceux quon ne fera jamais, au lit, le soir, quand on ne dort pas!) (see 3rd ed. Paris 1881, chapter 16, p. 346). The novel is set in an artistic milieu, and revolves around a broken marriage, the day-to-day worries of an old bachelor, the loneliness of the search for love, the need for a woman in short the desolateness of life. Cf. Sund 1992, p. 253 (n. 27). To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888. 7 ineffable perfections of natures glorious splendours. But how Id like to see the study you did at the brothel.65 I reproach myself endlessly for not having done figures here yet. Heres another landscape.67 Setting sun? Moonrise? Summer evening, at any rate. Town violet, star yellow, sky blue-green; the wheatfields have all the tones: old gold, copper, green gold, red gold, yellow gold, green, red and yellow bronze. Square no. 30 canvas. I painted it out in the mistral. My easel was fixed in the ground with iron pegs, a method that I recommend to you. You shove the feet of the easel in and then you push a 50-centimetre-long iron peg in beside them. You tie everything together with ropes; that way you can work in the wind. Heres what I wanted to say about the white and the black.68 Lets take the Sower. The painting is divided into two; one half is yellow, the top; the bottom is violet. Well, the white trousers rest the eye and distract it70 just when the excessive simultaneous contrast72 of yellow and violet would annoy it. Thats what I wanted to say. [2r:3] I know a second lieutenant of Zouaves here called Milliet73. I give him drawing lessons with my perspective frame74 and hes beginning to make drawings my word, Ive seen a lot worse than that, and hes eager to learn; has been to Tonkin, &c. Hes leaving for Africa in October.75 If you were in the Zouaves hed take you with him and would guarantee you a wide margin of relative freedom to paint, provided you helped him a little with his own artistic schemes. Could this be of some use to you? If so, let me know as soon as possible.77 One reason for working is that canvases are worth money. Youll tell me that first of all this reason is very prosaic, then that you doubt that its true. But its true. A reason for not working is that in the meantime canvases and paints only cost us money. Drawings, though, dont cost us much. Gauguin78s bored too in Pont-Aven; complains about isolation, like you. If you went to see him but I have no idea if hell stay there, and am inclined to think that he intends to go to Paris. He said that he thought you would have come to Pont-Aven. My God, if all three of us were here! Youll tell me its too far away. Fine, but in winter because here one can work outside all year round. Thats my reason for loving this part of the world, not having to dread the cold so much, which by preventing my blood from circulating prevents me from thinking, from doing anything at all. You can judge that for yourself when youre a soldier. Your melancholy will go away, which may darned well come from the fact that you have too little blood or tainted blood, which I dont think, however. Its that bloody filthy Paris wine and the filthy fat of the steaks that do that to you dear God, I had come to a state in which my own blood was no longer working at all, but literally not at all, as they say. But after 4 weeks down here it got moving again, but, my dear pal, at that same time I had an attack of melancholy like

65 Bernard66 sent him a drawing of a brothel soon afterwards, which Vincent sent on to Theo, saying: its probable that he has a more ﬁnished painted study of it (letter 630). Bernards drawing Brothel scene (see letter 630, n. 4) was thus probably based on that study of a brothel. However, no such painted version is known today. 67 The letter sketch Wheatﬁeld with setting sun (F - / JH 1474) is after the painting of the same name F 465 / JH 1473. 68 This is a subject that Van Gogh had raised in his previous letter to Bernard69 (622), who had presumably asked him to explain it in more detail. 70 This form of words is similar to that used by Charles Blanc71 in his Grammaire des arts du dessin when he wrote that, when using bold colours, white can serve to rest the eye, to refresh it, by moderating the dazzling brilliance of the whole spectacle ( reposer loeil, le rafrachir, en modrant lblouissant clat du spectacle entier). See Blanc 1870, p. 609. Van Gogh later made the trousers blue. 72 See letter 536, n. 28 for the concept of simultaneous contrast. 73 Paul Eugne Milliet (1863-1943) French lieutenant of the Zouaves 74 For Van Goghs knowledge and use of a perspective frame, see letter 235, n. 10.

75 Paul Eugne Milliet76 was due to leave for Guelma in Algeria on 1 November 1888. Cf. letters 714 and 716. 77 Van Gogh drew a box around ll. 85-93. 78 Paul (Eugne Henri) Gauguin (1848-1903) French artist 8 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888.

yours, from which I would have suffered as much as you were it not that I welcomed it with great [2v:4] pleasure as a sign that I was going to recover which happened too. Instead of going back to Paris, then, stay out in the country, because you need strength to get through this ordeal of going to Africa properly. Now the more blood, and good blood, that you make yourself beforehand, the better, because over there in the heat its perhaps harder to produce it. Painting and fucking a lot arent compatible; it weakens the brain, and thats whats really damned annoying.79 The symbol of Saint Luke, the patron of painters, is, as you know, an ox; we must therefore be as patient as an ox80 if we wish to labour in the artistic field. But bulls are pretty glad not having to work in the filthy business of painting. But what I wanted to say is this. After the period of melancholy youll be stronger82 than before, your health will pick up and youll find the surrounding nature so beautiful that youll have no other desire than to do painting. I believe that your poetry will also change, in the same way as in your painting. After some eccentric things you have succeeded in making some that have an Egyptian calm and a great simplicity. How short is the hour } We spend loving } Its less than an instant } A little more than a dream : } Time takes away } Our spell. }; Thats not Baudelaire83,84 I dont even know who its by, theyre the words of a song in Daudet88s Le Nabab,89 thats where I took it from but doesnt it say the thing like a real Ladys shrug of her shoulder? These last few days I read Pierre Loti92s Madame Chrysanthme; it provides interesting remarks about Japan.93 At the moment my brother has an exhibition of Claude Monet97, Id very much like to see them. Guy de Maupassant98 99, among others, had been there, and said that from now

79 Van Gogh was preoccupied with the relationship between social or artistic ambitions and creativity on the one hand, and sexual activity and procreation on the other. He admired men who were very active sexually or who had families, but believed that he himself had to forgo these benefits in the interests of his art. 80 The notion that a painter had to have the patience of an ox was based on a saying (unsourced) of Gustave Dor81s, as we learn from letter 400. 82 Van Gogh originally wrote plus boeuf (more of an ox) after seras. 83 Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) French writer 84 Van Gogh mentions the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire85 because he knew that he was an important figure for Bernard86, with his aspiration to become a poet. Bernards veneration of Baudelaire, which Van Gogh did not share, is very apparent in his correspondence with his mother87, who also wrote poetry. With thanks to Fred Leeman. 88 Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) French writer 89 Taken from Alphonse Daudet90, Le Nabab (chapter 22), where it is described as a melancholy Lied (un lied mlancolique). Van Gogh writes un instant where Daudet has un moment. Daudet took the lines from a poem by Armand Silvestre91 that Jules Massenet set to music in his cycle Pome davril (1866). See Daudet 1986-1994, vol. 2, pp. 804, 1395. 92 Louis Marie Julien Viaud (Pierre Loti) (1850-1923) French writer 93 Pierre Loti94s novel Madame Chrysanthme (1888) is set in Nagasaki. A French officer marries the Japanese Kikou- san, or Madame Chrysanthme. In reality the marriage is a paid, temporary concubinage. The Frenchman has no real feelings of love for her; it is more a question of his amazement at how doll-like she is. Loti describes the setting and the customs. The underlying message is that it is difficult for Europeans to penetrate the mysterious closed nature and morals of the Japanese, or the artificial refinement of objects. Van Gogh probably read an illustrated version that he borrowed from Milliet95. The way in which he portrayed himself in Self-portrait (F 476 / JH 1581) could derive from an illustration of bonzes in the edition of Madame Chrysanthme published in Paris in 1888 by Calmann-Lvy. See Kdera 1990, p. 56. It emerges from letter 718 that Milliet gave Gauguin96 this copy of the book in November 1888 in exchange for a drawing. 97 Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926) French artist 98 Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) French writer 99 Theo had written to tell Vincent about his meeting with Guy de Maupassant100. See letter 625, n. 7. To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888. 9 on he would often revisit boulevard Montmartre. I have to go and paint, so Ill finish Ill probably write to you again before long. I beg a thousand pardons for not having put enough stamps on the letter; and yet I did stamp it at the post office and this isnt the first time that its happened here, that when in doubt, and asking at the post office itself, Ive been misled about the postage. You cant imagine the carelessness, the nonchalance of the people here. Anyway, youll see that shortly with your own eyes in Africa. Thanks for your letter, I hope to write to you soon at a moment when Im in less of a hurry. Handshake. Ever yours, Vincent