To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888.

on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888

Metadata

Source status: Original manuscript

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

Date: Van Gogh describes the same works as those in letters 610 and 611 to Theo, and mentions a new still life, so this letter must have been written not long after letter 611 of about Sunday, 20 May. He had evidently not started on the drawings that he sent to Theo around 26 May (letter 613), since he does not mention them to Bernard. For these reasons we have dated the present letter on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888.

Additional: Bernard wrote to his parents about this letter on Monday, 28 May 1888: Vincent has written me a very nice letter. He has rented a house in Arles. What appealed to him was that its yellow, with all the walls whitewashed Hes not in very good health, he says. Lets hope it wont be serious Hes an excellent friend. (Vincent ma crit une trs jolie lettre. Il a lou une maison Arles. Ce qui la sduit cest quelle est jaune, avec tous les murs peints la chaux... Il nest pas trs bien portant, dit-il. Esprons que cela sera pas grave... Cest un excellent ami). See Harscot-Maire 1997, p. 171.

Original [1r:1] Mon cher Bernard, je viens de recevoir ta dernire lettre tu as bien raison de voir que ces ngresses1 taient navrantes tu as bien raison de ne pas trouver cela innocent.

1 It emerges later in the letter that Van Gogh is talking about the negresses in the paintings that Paul Gauguin2 had painted in Martinique between May and October 1887. Bernard3 certainly knew the two works that Theo and Vincent had in their collection: On the shore of the Lake, Martinique (see letter 576, n. 2) and Among the mangoes, 1887 (W250/W224), Ill. 107 (both Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Bernard had seen these works at the brothers apartment as we learn from his 1904 article Concernant Paul Gauguin, in which he gives a detailed description of Among the mangoes and remarks: This work, with its qualities of style and colour, with its characteristic drawing, is the best that Gauguin painted during that period (Cette oeuvre par ses qualits de style et de couleur, par son dessin caractristique, est la meilleure que Gauguin ait peinte cette poque.) See Bernard 1994, vol. 1, p. 77.

1 2 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888.

Je viens de lire un livre pas beau et pas bien crit dailleurs sur les Iles Marquises , 4 mais bien navrant lorsquil raconte lextermination de toute une tribu dindignes antropophages dans ce sens que disons une fois par mois on mangeait un individu, quest ce que a fait? Les blancs, trs crtiens etc. , pour mettre fin cette barbarie? rellement peu froce.... nont pas trouv mieux que dexterminer et la tribu des indigenes antropophages et la tribu avec laquelle la premire guerroyait (pour se procurer ainsi de part et dautre les prisonniers de guerre mangeables ncessaires). Ensuite on a annex les deux les, qui sont devenus dun lugubre!!! Ces races tatoues, ces ngres, ces indiens, tout tout tout disparat ou se vicie. Et laffreux blanc avec sa bouteille dalcool, son portemonnaie et sa vrole, quand donc laura-t on assez vu! Laffreux blanc avec son hypocrisie, son avarice et sa strilit. Et ces sauvages etaient si doux et si amoureux.[1v:2] Ah tu fais rudement bien de penser Gauguin cest de la haute poesie ses ngresses et tout ce que fait sa main a un caractre doux navr tonnant. On ne le comprend pas encore et lui souffre beaucoup de ne pas vendre, comme dautres vrais potes.5 Mon cher copain je taurais dj crit plus tt, seulement ai eu pas mal de chses sur les bras, jai expedi un premier envoi dtudes mon frre et dun, jai eu du mal avec ma sant et de deux, et de trois jai lou une maison peint en jaune en dehors, blanchie la chaux en dedans, en plein soleil (4 pieces). 7 Avec tout cela de nouvelles tudes

4 The Marquesas are in French Polynesia (Oceania), and have been French colonies since 1842. We have been unable to discover which book Van Gogh means here. Merlhs suggested that it was Max Radiguet, Les derniers sauvages. Souvenirs de loccupation franaise aux les Marquises: 1842-1859 (1861). See Merlhs 1989, p. 189 (n. 3). However, the events described by Van Gogh are not found in that book. The conflict he is referring to was probably the war that took place between the islands of Hivaoa and Tahuata at the time the French assumed power there. 5 Theo had paid Gauguin6 400 francs for Among the mangoes : see Gauguin lettres 1983, p. 33. 7 See for the Yellow House: letter 602, n. 3. To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888. 3 en train. Et le soir jtais souvent trop abruti pour crire. Voila pourquoi ma rponse a tard. Ecoute, le sonnet des femmes du boulevard a du bon mais ny est pas la fin est banale. une femme sublime, je ne sais pas ce que tu entends par l ni toi non plus dans ce cas. Ensuite dans le clan des vieux et des jeunes maraude Ceux quelle emmenera coucher le soir trs tard.8 quelque chse comme ca cest pas caractristique car [1v:3] les femmes de notre boulevard du petit10 dhabitude couchent seules la nuit car elles tirent 5 ou 6 coups dans la journee ou le soir et trs tard cest cet honorable carnivore, leur maquereau, qui vient les chercher et les reconduire, oui, mais il ne couche pas avec (que rarement). la femme reinte et defaite se couche seule dhabitude et dort dun sommeil de plomb. Mais avec deux ou 3 lignes de refaites cela y sera. Quest ce que tu as peint maintenant. Jai fait moi une nature morte avec une cafetire en fer emaill bleu une tasse & soucoupe bleu de roi,

8 This is a reference to and quotation from the poem La Prostitution by Emile Bernard9, who wrote in his 1911 publication: It will perhaps not be without interest that I publish here the sonnet criticized by Vincent, not for the sake of my lines, which are bad, but because of his opinion itself: PROSTITUTION To Vincent Prostitution sallies forth, her face all paint and rouge; Along the brightly lit boulevard she prowls Hunting among the clan of old and young, Those whom shell take to bed, tonight, very late. In beauty though she be no match for Aude, Her charms are not a jot the less, because Whats beauty, if the females hot And of loves arts has perfect mastery? My friend, lets go attend her dismal rites, I love her shameless nakedness by candle-light; Lets go, and strip her of her bodice and her hose. And when weve set her, naked, on our lap, When paint and rouge are gone, what stranger May emerge, whos more sublime who knows? October 1887. I add the date in order to excuse these follies. (Il ne sera pas sans intrt peut-tre que je publie ici le sonnet critiqu par Vincent, non cause de mes vers, qui sont mauvais, mais cause de son opinion mme: la prostitution A Vincent. La Prostitution sort couverte de fard, Le long du boulevard lumineux elle rde Et dans le clan des vieux et des jeunes maraude Ceux quelle emmnera coucher ce soir, trs tard. Certes, si sa beaut nest exquise comme Aude Elle nen est pas moins trs sduisante, car Quimporte la beaut si la femelle est chaude Et connat cet amour dont elle-mme est lart! Allons tous deux, ami, vers sa funbre orgie, Jaime sa nudit flambant sous la bougie; Allons pour lui ravir ses bas et son corset. Et, quand sur nos genoux nous laurons mise nue, Que le fard tombera, quelque femme inconnue Surgira, qui sera plus sublime... qui sait? Octobre 1887. Je mets la date pour excuser ces folies) See Lettres Bernard 1911, pp. 84-85. Cf. exhib. cat. New Brunswick 1988, p. 23. 10 See for the painters of the Petit Boulevard: letter 584, n. 6. 4 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888.

un pot au lait carrel cobalt ple et blanc, une tasse avec dessins orangs et bleus sur fond blanc, un pot en majolique bleu avec fleurs & feuillages verts, bruns, roses, tout cela sur une nappe bleue sur un fond jaune. Avec ces poteries 2 oranges & trois citrons.11 Cest donc une variation de bleus gaye par une serie de jaunes qui vont jusqu lorang. Puis jai une autre nature morte, des citrons dans un [1r:4] panier sur fond jaune. 13 Puis une vue dArles de la ville on napercoit que quelques toits rouges et une tour, le reste est cache par de la verdure de figuiers &c. Cela tout au fond et une bande troite de ciel bleu dessus. La ville est entoure dimmenses prairies toutes fleuries dinnombrables boutons dor une mer jaune. Ces prairies sont coups sur le premier plan par un foss rempli de fleurs diris violettes.14 On a coup lherbe pendant que jetais en train de peindre, ce nest donc quune tude et non un tableau fait que javais lintention den faire. Mais quel motif hein cette mer de fleurs jaunes avec une barre diris violets et au fond la coquette petite ville aux jolies femmes. Puis deux tudes de bords de route aprs faites en plein mistral.15 Si tu nattendais pas ma rponse de suite je ferais croquis. Bon courage, bonne chance, poigne de main. Je suis ereint ce soir. Je tcris de nouveau de ces jours ci plus mon aise. Vincent P.S. le croquis de femme dans lavant-dernire lettre est bien joli. 16

11 Still life with coffee pot (F 410 / JH 1426). Van Gogh sent Bernard12 a sketch of this painting with his next letter (622). 13 Basket of lemons (F 384 / JH 1425). 14 View of Arles with irises in the foreground (F 409 / JH 1416). 15 Farmhouse in a wheatfield (F 408 / JH 1417) and Landscape with the edge of a road (F 567 / JH 1419). The mistral blew on 11 and 12 May (Mto-France). 16 This was probably the drawing Girl in a Paris street : see letter 602, n. 20. To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888. 5

Mon adresse: Place Lamartine 2 Arles.

Translation [1r:1] My dear Bernard17, Ive just received your last letter youre quite right to see that those negresses18 were heart-rending youre quite right not to find it innocent. Ive just read a book not beautiful and not well written, by the way on the Marquesas Islands,21 but very heart-rending in its description of the extermination of an entire tribe of natives cannibals in the sense that lets say an individual was eaten once a month, and what of that? The whites, very Christian, etc., to put an end to this barbarity? really not very savage...., could think of nothing better than to exterminate both the tribe of cannibal natives and the tribe with which the former was at war (in order to obtain the requisite edible prisoners of war on both sides). Then the two islands were annexed, and did they become dismal!!! Those tattooed races, those negroes, those Indians, everything, everything, everything disappears or is corrupted. And the frightful white man, with his bottle of alcohol, his wallet and his pox, when will we have seen enough of him! The frightful white man, with his hypocrisy, his greed and his sterility! And those savages were so gentle and so loving. [1v:2] Ah, you do darned well to think of Gauguin22 theyre high poetry, his negresses and everything his hand makes has a sweet, heart-rending, astonishing character. People dont understand him yet, and he suffers greatly from not selling, like other true poets.23 My dear pal, I would have written to you sooner, only have had quite a few things on my hands; Ive sent a first batch of studies to my brother is one, Ive had trouble with my health is two, and three is that Ive rented a house painted yellow outside, whitewashed inside, in the full sun (4 rooms).25 With all that, new studies on the go. And in the evening I was often too numbed to write. Thats why my reply was delayed. Listen, the sonnet about the women of the boulevard has some good things, but it isnt there yet the ends banal. A sublime woman, I dont know what you mean by that, nor do you in this case. Then Hunting among the clan of old and young Those whom shell take to bed late at night.26 Something like that its not characteristic, because the women of our boulevard le petit28 usually [1v:3]

17 Emile Bernard (1868-1941) French artist and writer 18 It emerges later in the letter that Van Gogh is talking about the negresses in the paintings that Paul Gauguin19 had painted in Martinique between May and October 1887. Bernard20 certainly knew the two works that Theo and Vincent had in their collection: On the shore of the Lake, Martinique (see letter 576, n. 2) and Among the mangoes, 1887 (W250/W224), Ill. 107 (both Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Bernard had seen these works at the brothers apartment as we learn from his 1904 article Concernant Paul Gauguin, in which he gives a detailed description of Among the mangoes and remarks: This work, with its qualities of style and colour, with its characteristic drawing, is the best that Gauguin painted during that period (Cette oeuvre par ses qualits de style et de couleur, par son dessin caractristique, est la meilleure que Gauguin ait peinte cette poque.) See Bernard 1994, vol. 1, p. 77. 21 The Marquesas are in French Polynesia (Oceania), and have been French colonies since 1842. We have been unable to discover which book Van Gogh means here. Merlhs suggested that it was Max Radiguet, Les derniers sauvages. Souvenirs de loccupation franaise aux les Marquises: 1842-1859 (1861). See Merlhs 1989, p. 189 (n. 3). However, the events described by Van Gogh are not found in that book. The conflict he is referring to was probably the war that took place between the islands of Hivaoa and Tahuata at the time the French assumed power there. 22 Paul (Eugne Henri) Gauguin (1848-1903) French artist 23 Theo had paid Gauguin24 400 francs for Among the mangoes : see Gauguin lettres 1983, p. 33. 25 See for the Yellow House: letter 602, n. 3.

26 This is a reference to and quotation from the poem La Prostitution by Emile Bernard27, who wrote in his 1911 publication: It will perhaps not be without interest that I publish here the sonnet criticized by Vincent, not for the sake of my lines, which are bad, but because of his opinion itself: 6 To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888.

sleep alone at night because they screw 5 or 6 times during the day or the evening and late at night its that honourable carnivore, their pimp, who comes to collect them and take them home, yes, but he doesnt sleep with them (only rarely). The worn-out and haggard woman usually goes to bed alone, and sleeps a leaden sleep. But with two or 3 lines redone, itll be there. What have you painted now? I myself have done a still life with a coffee pot in blue enamelled iron a royal blue cup and saucer, a milk jug with pale cobalt and white checks, a cup with orange and blue designs on a white background, a blue majolica jug with green, brown, pink flowers and foliage, all of it on a blue tablecloth against a yellow background. With these pieces of crockery, 2 oranges and three lemons.29 Its thus a variation of blues enlivened by a series of yellows ranging all the way to orange. [1r:4] Then I have another still life, some lemons in a basket against a yellow background.31 Then a view of Arles of the town you see only a few red roofs and a tower, the rests hidden by the foliage of fig-trees, &c. All that far off in the background and a narrow strip of blue sky above. The town is surrounded by vast meadows decked with innumerable buttercups a yellow sea. These meadows are intersected in the foreground by a ditch full of purple irises.32 They cut the grass while I was painting, so its only a study and not a finished painting, which I intended to make of it. But what a subject eh that sea of yellow flowers with a line of purple irises, and in the background the neat little town of pretty women. Then two studies of roadsides afterwards done out in the mistral.33 If you werent expecting my reply right away Id make croquis. Courage, good luck, handshake. Im worn out this evening. Ill write to you again one of these days, more at my ease. Vincent

PROSTITUTION To Vincent Prostitution sallies forth, her face all paint and rouge; Along the brightly lit boulevard she prowls Hunting among the clan of old and young, Those whom shell take to bed, tonight, very late. In beauty though she be no match for Aude, Her charms are not a jot the less, because Whats beauty, if the females hot And of loves arts has perfect mastery? My friend, lets go attend her dismal rites, I love her shameless nakedness by candle-light; Lets go, and strip her of her bodice and her hose. And when weve set her, naked, on our lap, When paint and rouge are gone, what stranger May emerge, whos more sublime who knows? October 1887. I add the date in order to excuse these follies. (Il ne sera pas sans intrt peut-tre que je publie ici le sonnet critiqu par Vincent, non cause de mes vers, qui sont mauvais, mais cause de son opinion mme: la prostitution A Vincent. La Prostitution sort couverte de fard, Le long du boulevard lumineux elle rde Et dans le clan des vieux et des jeunes maraude Ceux quelle emmnera coucher ce soir, trs tard. Certes, si sa beaut nest exquise comme Aude Elle nen est pas moins trs sduisante, car Quimporte la beaut si la femelle est chaude Et connat cet amour dont elle-mme est lart! Allons tous deux, ami, vers sa funbre orgie, Jaime sa nudit flambant sous la bougie; Allons pour lui ravir ses bas et son corset. Et, quand sur nos genoux nous laurons mise nue, Que le fard tombera, quelque femme inconnue Surgira, qui sera plus sublime... qui sait? Octobre 1887. Je mets la date pour excuser ces folies) See Lettres Bernard 1911, pp. 84-85. Cf. exhib. cat. New Brunswick 1988, p. 23. 28 See for the painters of the Petit Boulevard: letter 584, n. 6.

29 Still life with coffee pot (F 410 / JH 1426). Van Gogh sent Bernard30 a sketch of this painting with his next letter (622). 31 Basket of lemons (F 384 / JH 1425). 32 View of Arles with irises in the foreground (F 409 / JH 1416). 33 Farmhouse in a wheatfield (F 408 / JH 1417) and Landscape with the edge of a road (F 567 / JH 1419). The mistral blew on 11 and 12 May (Mto-France). To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888. 7

P.S. The croquis of the woman in the last letter but one is really pretty.34 My address: Place Lamartine 2 Arles.

34 This was probably the drawing Girl in a Paris street : see letter 602, n. 20.