Letter Sketches

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Vincent Van Gogh is most famous for the nearly 900 exceptional paintings he produced during his short career, however, he also wrote over 800 letters to his friends and family. Most of these letters were affectionate correspondence to his younger brother and confidant Theo, detailing events in Van Gogh’s life.

Van Gogh also exchanged letters with a young artist who had impressed him, Emile Bernard. In the candid and informal letters to Bernard, there was clearly a continuing conversation taking place as they traded ideas about technique and color as well as art itself.

Van Gogh to Bernard, 1888:

"My dear old Bernard, I'm quite curious to know what you've been doing lately. I'm still doing landscapes - sketch enclosed. I'd very much like to see Africa as well. But I'm hardly making any firm plans for the future. It'll depend on circumstances. What I should like to know is the effect of a more intense blue in the sky…"

"You can't have blue without yellow or orange, and if you do blue, then do yellow and orange as well, surely. Ah well, you'll tell me that I write you nothing but banalities. Handshake in thought, Ever yours, Vincent"

Many people consider Van Gogh’s letters

Vincent van Gogh Starry Night Over the Rhone Sketch
to be an art form of their own, just as impressive as his famous paintings. Within the pages of the lengthy letters are remarkable sketches of works that he was in the process of creating or had recently finished. The sketches allow us to see the progression of Van Gogh’s work as well as his growth as an artist. There is great attention to detail in these sketches.

Van Gogh’s letters show a side of him many don’t know about and give a good perspective of the artist’s life and his connection to his artwork as well as his state of mind. The sketches are invaluable, as they give us glimpses into the process by which Van Gogh arrived at his masterpieces.

In a letter to Theo from 1882 Van Gogh wrote,

“Where in this little sketch the black is darkest, there in the watercolour are the strongest effects, dark green, brown and grey. Well, adieu, and believe me that sometimes I laugh heartily, because people suspect me of all kinds of malignity and absurdities, of which I do not nourish an inkling. (I who am really nothing but a friend of nature. of study. of work, and of people in particular.)”

Sources:
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/B06.htm http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/221.htm

Enclosed Field with a Sower in the Rain Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges Field with Factory View of Saintes-Maries with Cemetery
Enclosed Field with a Sower in the Rain Quay with Men Unloading Sand Barges Field with Factory View of Saintes-Maries with Cemetery
"To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace."