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To Theo Van Gogh. London, Sunday, 20 July 1873

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To Theo Van Gogh. London, Sunday, 20 July 1873 To Theo van Gogh. London, Sunday, 20 July 1873. Sunday, 20 July 1873 Metadata Source status: Original manuscript Location: Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. b10 V/1962 (sheet 1) and b1457 V/1962 (sheet 2) Date: Letter headed: Londen 20 Juli 1873. Additional: Original [1r:1] Londen 20 Juli 1873 Waarde Theo, Dank voor je brief, die mij veel genoegen deed. Ik ben blij dat het je goed gaat, & t je bij Mr. Schmidt aan huis bevallen blijft. Mr. Obach had met pleizier kennis met je gemaakt.1 Ik hoop dat wij in t vervolg veel zaken met jelui zullen doen. Dat schij van Linder3 is zeer mooi. Wat de photogravure betreft, ik weet wel zoowat hoe zij gemaakt worden, maar heb het niet gezien, en t is mij niet helder genoeg om het uit te leggen.5 1 Obach2 had made a journey to the Netherlands and had evidently visited Brussels as well. Cf. FR b2644, 19 July 1873. 3 It is possible that Van Gogh is referring to the French painter Philippe Jacques Linder4; it is not known which work Theo wrote about. 5 The essence of the process of photo-engraving is the application of a light-sensitive layer to the matrix (the copper plate), upon which a transparency is projected. The exposed material hardens and the unexposed material 1 2 To Theo van Gogh. London, Sunday, 20 July 1873. De Engelsche kunst trok mij in t begin niet erg aan, men moet er aan wen- nen. Er zijn echter knappe schilders hier, o.a. Millais die The Huguenot, Ophelia &c. heeft gemaakt, waarvan je de gravures wel zult kennen,6 dat is zeer mooi. Dan Boughton, van wien je de Puritains allant lglise,[1v:2] in onze Galerie photographique,11 kent, van hem heb ik zeer mooie zaken gezien. Verder onder de oude schilders Constable, dat is een landschapschilder die een jaar of 30 geleden leefde, dat is prachtig, het heeft iets van Diaz en Daubigny, en Reynolds en Gainsborough die vooral zeer zeer mooie vrouwenportretten hebben geschilderd en dan Turner naar wien je wel gravures zult gezien hebben.13 Er wonen enkele goede Fransche schilders hier, o.a. Tissot, naar wien verscheidene phot. in onze Gal. photogr. zijn,15 Otto Weber en Heilbuth. De laatste maakt tegenwoor- dig juweelig mooie schilde- rijen in den trant van dat van Linder. Gij moet mij bij gelegenheid eens schrijven of er photographien naar Wauters can then be removed, after which the plate is etched. Characteristic of the result is the soft, velvety quality of the depiction. 6 Two reproductions are known of The Huguenot by Sir John Everett Millais7. The successful mezzotint by Thomas Oldham Barlow8, published by Henry Graves in 1857 (London, Victoria & Albert Museum), ill. 261; and the stipple and etching (small edition) made by George Zobel9, which was issued in 1869 by B. Brooks. See Engen 1995, pp. 54-57, 122. Cf. exhib. cat. Nottingham 1974, p. 15. The painting A Huguenot, 1852 (New York, Huntingdon Hartford College) was exhibited in 1852 at the Royal Academy in London under the title A Huguenot, on St Bartholomews Day, refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the roman catholic badge. See exhib. cat. London 1992, p. 43 (n. 2). James Stephenson10s mezzotint of Ophelia, 1852 (London, Tate Gallery), was published in 1866 by Henry Graves (London, British Museum). Ill. 264. See Engen 1995, pp. 60-62, 122. 11 Van Gogh is referring to the photograph of a painting by George Henry Boughton12: Early Puritans of New England going to worship armed, to protect themselves from indians and wild beasts, 1867 (New York, The New York Historical Society; Robert L. Stuart Collection). Ill. 618. This work was also for sale as a Carte de visite as Puritains allant lglise (Bordeaux, Muse Goupil. Inv. no. 90.II.1.606). 13 Turner14 has a large graphic oeuvre. The Liber studiorum (1808-1819), a collection of graphic works classified by theme, was the result of collaboration between the artist and various professional engravers; Turner himself made ten mezzotints. See Luke Herrmann, Turner prints. The engraved work of J.M.W. Turner. Oxford 1990. 15 Goupils 1874 catalogue records the following works by Tissot16: Chinoiseries, Le goter (Afternoon tea) and Les patineuses (Lac de Longchamps) (Women skating (Lake Longchamps)), cat. nos. 852-854. For a complete list of the prints by Tissot that Goupil had in stock, see Pierre-Lin Reni, Tissot, Bingham, Goupil: le peintre et ses diteurs, James Tissot et ses matres. Cyrille Sciama. Exhib. cat. Nantes (Muse des Beaux-arts), 2005-2006. Nantes 2005, pp. 111-119. To Theo van Gogh. London, Sunday, 20 July 1873. 3 zijn behalve Hugo v.d. Goes en Maria van Bourgondie17 en of je ook photographies kent naar schilderijen van Lagye en de Braekeleer. [1v:3] Dat is niet den ouden de Braekeleer dien ik bedoel maar ik geloof een zoon van hem die op de laatste tentoonstelling te Brussel 3 prachtige schil- derijen had, getiteld Anvers, Lcole en Latlas.19 Het gaat mij hier goed, ik wandel veel, het is, hier waar ik woon, eene stille, gezellige en frissche buurt, ik heb dat wezentlijk goed getroffen. Toch denk ik wel eens met weemoed aan de heerlijke Zondagen te Scheveningen22 en zoo voorts, maar daarom niet getreurd. Je zult zeker gehoord hebben dat Anna te huis, en niet wel is,23 dat is een slecht begin van hare vacantie maar wij willen hopen zij nu reeds beter is. Dank voor wat je mij van schilderijen geschreven hebt. Als je ooit iets ziet van Lagye, de Braekeleer, Wauters, Maris, 25 Tissot, George Saal, Jundt, Ziem, Mauve, moet je mij dat vooral schrijven, dat zijn schilders waarvan ik veel houd en van wien je waarschijn- [1r:4] lijk wel eens iets zien zult. Hierbij eene copie van dat vers van dien bewusten schilder die trad in de Zwaen, de 17 Van Gogh is referring to reproductions after Wauters18s paintings The painter Hugo van der Goes in the red cloister, 1872 (Brussels, Muses Royaux des Beaux-Arts) and Mary of Burgundy begging mercy of the magistrates of Ghent for her advisers Hugonet and Humbercourt, 1870 (Lige, Muse dart moderne et dart contemporain (Mamac) Ill. 447 and Ill. 448. In 1872 Wauters made another version of Mary of Burgundy (Brussels, Muses Royaux des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 5070). Both works were shown at the Brussels Salon of 1872, which Van Gogh visited (see letters 4, 6 and 13). 19 Van Gogh is referring to Henri de Braekeleer20, a son of the artist Ferdinand de Braekeleer21. At the Exposition gnrale des Beaux-Arts (General Exhibition of Fine Arts), held from 15 August to 15 October 1872, the following works by Henri de Braekeleer were exhibited: Antwerp: The cathedral, 1872 (Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, depot Royal Collection), The catechism lesson (The school or The lesson), 1872 and The atlas (The geographer), 1871 (both in Brussels, Muse Royaux des Beaux-Arts). Ill. 627, ill. 630 and ill. 628. See Todts 1988, pp. 40, 80-81, 113-114, 122, 124-125. 22 A fishing village and seaside resort near The Hague. 23 On Friday, 11 July, Anna24 had arrived, ill, in Helvoirt; she had a fever and a severe headache (FR b2641). 25 It is not certain which Maris Van Gogh is referring to here: the Dutch painters and brothers Jacob (Jaap) Hen- drik Maris26, Matthijs Maris27 and Willem Maris28 are possibilities, although the last of the three is less likely, considering his secondary importance in Van Goghs correspondence. 4 To Theo van Gogh. London, Sunday, 20 July 1873. herberg waer hij besteed was29 dat je je wel herrinneren zult. Dat is echt Brabant en ik houd er zoo veel van, Lies schreef het voor mij over den laatsten avond dat ik te huis was.30 Wat zou ik je graag eens hier hebben, wat hebben wij te sHage prettige dagen samen gehad, ik denk nog zoo dikwijls aan dien wan- deling op den Rijswijkschen weg waar wij aan den molen na den regen melk gedronken hebben.31 Als de schilderijen die wij van jelui hebben, teruggaan, stuur ik je een portret van dien molen door Weissenbruch,32 je herrinnert je misschien wel, den vrolijken Wijs is zijn bijnaam, prrrachtig zal k maar eens zeggen.34 Die Rijs- wijkschen weg heeft voor mij herrin- neringen die misschien de heerlijksten zijn die ik heb. Als wij elkaar eens spreken hebben wij het daar misschien nog wel eens over. En nu kerel, heb het goed, denk van tijd tot tijd eens aan mij en schrijf mij eens spoedig, het is zoon ver- kwikking voor mij als ik een brief krijg. Vincent. Mijne groeten aan Mr. Schmidt en Eduard.36 Hoe gaat het met Oom Hein 29 See the appendix at the end of the letter. The quotation is the last line of the poem. 30 Van Goghs last evening at home was 11 May 1873. 31 At that time the Rijswijkseweg ran south of The Hague. The brothers took a walk there which Vincent mentions more than once. The mill referred to is possibly the Laakmolen, well known in those days, where one could buy, in addition to a glass of milk for 1 cent, fried eels. The doubt as to the mills identity is connected with Van Goghs assertion in July 1882 that the mill had been demolished (see letter 248). However, there is no archival evidence to verify the demolition in the intervening years of one of the mills on the Rijswijkse Trekvliet; on the contrary, improvements were carried out at this very time.
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