The only period where the public is relatively uninformed is the Parisian period when they shared an apartment and had no need to correspond. Nevertheless, it is to these letters between the brothers that is owed much of what is known today about Vincent van Gogh. Arnold Pomerans, editor of a 1966 selection of the letters, wrote that Theo 'was the kind of man who saved even the smallest scrap of paper', and it is to this trait that the public owes the 663 letters from Vincent.īy contrast, Vincent infrequently kept letters sent to him and just 84 have survived, of which 39 were from Theo.

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, the wife of Vincent's brother Theo, spent many years after her husband's death in 1891 compiling the letters, which were first published in 1914. The collection also includes letters van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil and other relatives, as well as between artists such as Paul Gauguin, Anthon van Rappard, and Émile Bernard. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo.

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh is a collection of 903 surviving letters written (820) or received (83) by Vincent van Gogh. I've painted it on a fairly large canvas, and as the sketch is now, I believe there's life in it.' He was currently working on the painting, which was to become one of his first complex compositions with multiple figures, and illustrated the letter with a sketch of the work, writing 'See, this is what the composition has now become. In April 1885, Vincent wrote his brother about his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters.

The letters of vincent van gogh