Notes

Context:
JLB 697, 10/4/1888 or 10/5/1888: "Gauguin looks ill and tormented in his portrait!!

Context:
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "Gauguin arrived in good health. He even gave me the impression of being in better shape than me."

Context:
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "For a long time it has seemed to me that in our filthy job as painters we have the greatest need of people with the hands and stomach of a labourer. More natural tastes -- more amorous and benevolent temperaments -- than the decadent and exhausted Parisian man-about-town. Now here, without the slightest doubt, we're in the presence of an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast. With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition."

Context:
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "For a long time it has seemed to me that in our filthy job as painters we have the greatest need of people with the hands and stomach of a labourer. More natural tastes -- more amorous and benevolent temperaments -- than the decadent and exhausted Parisian man-about-town. Now here, without the slightest doubt, we're in the presence of an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast. With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition."

Context:
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "Now here, without the slightest doubt, we're in the presence of an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast. With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition."

Context:
JLB 713, 10/27/1888: "On returning from Brussels I find your telegram and your letter; I'm sending you a money order, because although it's possible that Gauguin has received the letter that I addressed to Pont-Aven, thinking him still over there, the possibility exists that the two of you may not have received it, …"

Context:
BVG T2, 10/23/1888: "You will be pleased to learn that I sold the big picture of Gauguin's 'Les Bretonnes,' which has been on exhibition at Diot's. I am sending him 500 francs, so for the moment he will be quite well off, but is he going to join you?"
JLB 711, 10/23/1888: "What will please you is that I've sold Gauguin's large painting, the Breton women, which had been deposited with Diot. I'm sending him 500 francs for it and so he'll be solvent for the moment, but will he come to join you?"

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "Now I hope to breathe easily at last, since we have all had a tremendous stroke of luck in your being able to sell a picture for Gauguin. One way or another, all three of us, he and you and I, can pull ourselves together enough to realize what we have done."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "Now I dare breathe at last, as we've all had a stroke of darned good fortune with the sale you were able to make for Gauguin. One way or another, all three of us, he, you and I, will still be able to pull ourselves together a bit, in order to calmly take in what we've just done."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "One way or another, all three of us, he and you and I, can pull ourselves together enough to realize what we have done."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "One way or another, all three of us, he, you and I, will still be able to pull ourselves together a bit, in order to calmly take in what we've just done."

Context:
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "Of course, I don't know in advance what Gauguin will say about this part of the world and about our life, but in any case he's very happy with the good sale that you made for him."

Context:
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "I can do nothing about it if my paintings don't sell."

Context:
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "I myself feel, to the point of being mentally crushed and physically drained, the need to produce, precisely because in short I have no other means, none, none, of ever recouping our outlay."

Context:
BVG 557, 10/24/1888: "But my dear boy, my debt is so great that when I have paid it, when all the same I hope to succeed in doing, the pains of producing pictures taken my whole life from me, and it will seem to me then that I have not lived."
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "But my dear brother, my debt is so great that when I've paid it, which I think I'll succeed in doing, the hardship of producing paintings will, however, have taken my entire life, and it will seem to me that I haven't lived."

Context:
BVG 557, 10/24/1888: " It is agonizing to me that there is no demand for them now, because you suffer for it, but as far as I am concerned -- if only you were not too worried by my bringing nothing in -- it would pretty much be all the same to me."
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: " The fact that they don't sell now makes me anxious that you're suffering too, but it would be of little concern to me if you didn't become too hard up by my bringing nothing in."

Context:
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "I believe that the day will come when I'll sell too, but I'm so far behind with you, and while I spend I bring nothing in. That feeling sometimes makes me sad."

Context:
BVG T3a, 11/13/1888: " It will probably please you to learn that your pictures are having a great success. Even before I received my brother's letters I had them mounted on adjustable stretchers, and for showing the size 30 canvases I have taken a very fine white frame of unpainted wood, in which they show up very well. Degas is so enthusiastic about your works that he is speaking about them to a lot of people, and he is going to buy the canvas representing a spring landscape, with a meadow with two female figures in the foreground, the one sitting and the other standing. Two canvases have now been definitely sold."

Context:
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "For my part, I'd wish just to ask you too that I'm asking for no more than to continue at a very ordinary sum per month of 150 (and the same for Gauguin). Which in any case reduces my personal spending. While his paintings will certainly go up."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "In another way it is only right that I should take some trouble to make a painting such that even from the financial point of view it is better that it should be on my canvas than in the tubes."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "On the other hand, it's only fair that I give myself a little trouble to make a painting such that even from the point of view of the money, it was preferable that it should be on my canvas rather than in the tubes."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "In another way it is only right that I should take some trouble to make a painting such that even from the financial point of view it is better that it should be on my canvas than in the tubes."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "On the other hand, it's only fair that I give myself a little trouble to make a painting such that even from the point of view of the money, it was preferable that it should be on my canvas rather than in the tubes."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "After that, if you keep my pictures for yourself, either in Paris or here, I should so much rather be able to say bluntly that you prefer to keep my work for ourselves and not sell it than join in the scuffle for money just now. Honestly."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "Later, then, if you keep my paintings for yourself, either in Paris or here, I'll be much happier to be able to say bluntly that you prefer to keep my work for us than to sell it, than to have to get involved in the struggle for money at this moment. Most certainly."

Context:
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "Later, then, if you keep my paintings for yourself, either in Paris or here, I'll be much happier to be able to say bluntly that you prefer to keep my work for us than to sell it, than to have to get involved in the struggle for money at this moment. Most certainly. Besides, if what I do is good, then we'll lose nothing by it, in terms of money, because, like wine that you would have in the cellar, it would quietly ferment."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "Besides, if what I am doing should be good, then we shall lose nothing in the money line, for it will mature quietly, like wine in the cellar."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "Besides, if what I do is good, then we'll lose nothing by it, in terms of money, because, like wine that you would have in the cellar, it would quietly ferment."

Context:
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "Then I did another study of ploughed field with the stump of an old yew. Like this."

Context:
JLB 650, 7/29/1888: "The more completely you become a dealer, the more you become an artist. Just as I very much hope to be in the same case ... The more I become dissipated, ill, a broken pitcher, the more I too become a creative artist in that great revival of art of which we're speaking. These things are indeed so, but this eternally existing art and this revival -- this green shoot growing from the roots of the old felled trunk -- these are things so spiritual that a kind of melancholy remains with us when we reflect that at less expense we could have made life instead of making art."

Context:
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "This week I did a new study of a sower; the landscape utterly flat, the figure small and blurred."

Context:
JLB 697, 10/4/1888 or 10/5/1888: "Bernard has sent me another collection of ten or so drawings, with a gallant piece of verse -- the whole thing's entitled 'at the brothel.'"

Context:
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "I'm writing in haste, we have heaps of work. He and I plan to go to the brothels a lot, but only to study them."

According to Druick and Zegers: "Soliciting Milliet's advice on the matter of Bernard's possible military service in North Africa, Vincent brought up the related topic of the South's creative potential. From this starting point, the Studio of the South concept blossomed at once into talk of a parallel project in the tropics, an idea that Gauguin acknowledged was Vincent's. One can imagine it taking shape in Vincent's mind as he listened to Gauguin and Milliet swapping stories about their exploits in France's colonies in the Caribbean, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, calling up [Pierre] Loti's various exotic narratives." (ibid.) We would suggest that Vincent's silence about Milliet in the last week of October is conspicuous, and his abrupt and delayed reports of the lieutenant's departure surprising. Both suggest that by this time the two had experienced a falling out, or at least a falling apart, as the time for Milliet's departure approached. In support of this, we would cite Vincent's odd, emphatic report of his intent to take Gauguin on a tour of the brothels: " He and I plan to go to the brothels a lot, but only to study them" (JLB 715, 10/29/1888, emphasis added). Milliet was still in Arles at the time. That he was not included on this tour (or even excluded), suggests the relationship had cooled. Milliet did, however, as noted, make contact with Gauguin and he did write Vincent a letter from Algeria in December (see Ch. 35, n. 42), so if there was a last-minute estrangement, it was not complete.

Context:
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "It's now quite likely that Bernard will go to Africa, where he'll be with Milliet, who greets you warmly and will leave on the 1st November."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "He and I intend to make a tour of the brothels pretty often, so as to study them."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "He and I plan to go to the brothels a lot, but only to study them."

Context:
BVG B19, 10/7/1888: "You know, Bernard, I feel sure that if I wanted to do studies of brothels, it would cost me more money than I have; I am no longer young and my body is not attractive enough to women to get them to pose for me free for nothing."
JLB 698, 10/5/1888: "You know, Bernard, it always seems to me that if I want to do studies of brothels I'd need more money than I have; I'm not young or womanizer enough for them to pose for me for free."

Context:
JLB 736, 1/17/1889: "Several times over I've seen him do things that you or I wouldn't permit ourselves to do, having consciences that feel things differently -- I've heard two or three things said of him in the same vein -- but I, who saw him at very, very close quarters, I believed him led by his imagination, by pride perhaps but -- -- quite irresponsible."

Context:
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "Be that as it may, he, like me, nevertheless likes what he sees, and is particularly intrigued by the Arlésiennes."

Context:
JLB 655, 8/5/1888: "If we want, ourselves, to get a hard-on for our work, we must sometimes resign ourselves to fucking only a little, and for the rest to be, according as our temperament demands, soldiers or monks" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG B14, 8/4/1888: "If we want to be really potent males in our work, we must sometimes resign ourselves to not fuck much, and for the rest be monks or soldiers, according to the needs of our temperament."
JLB 655, 8/5/1888: "If we want, ourselves, to get a hard-on for our work, we must sometimes resign ourselves to fucking only a little, and for the rest to be, according as our temperament demands, soldiers or monks" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG B19a, 11/2/1888: "Well, here we are without the slightest doubt in the presence of a virgin creature with savage instincts. With Gauguin blood and sex prevail over ambition."
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "Now here, without the slightest doubt, we're in the presence of an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast. With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition."

Context:
BVG B14, 8/4/1888: "Why exert ourselves to pour out all our creative sap where the well-fed professional pimps and ordinary fools do better in the matter of satisfying the genital organs of the whore, who is in this case more submissive than we are ourselves?"
JLB 655, 8/5/1888: "Why exert ourselves in spending all our creative juices when those who pimp for a living and even their simple, well-fed clients work more to the satisfaction of the genital organs of the registered whore in this case than we do?"

Context:
BVG W19, 1/20/1890: "I am so fond of my friend Gauguin because he has found the means of producing children and pictures at the same time; at the moment he is horribly distressed and uneasy in his mind because one of his children met with an accident and he was not there, and unable to assist."
JLB 841, 1/20/1890: "I like friend Gauguin so much because he has found the means to make both children and paintings at the same time, at the moment he's horribly in distress and has this worry that one of his children has had a misfortune and he not there and in no condition to come to its aid."

Context:
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "Now we've done some work already, of course; he has a negress on the go, and a big landscape of this region."

Context:
BVG 622a, 1/20/1890: "So I write you this letter, my dear friends, in order to try and distract our dear patient for a moment, so that she may once again show us her habitual smile and give pleasure to all who know her."
JLB 842, 1/20/1890: "I'm therefore writing to you, dear friends, to try to distract for a moment our dear patient so that she can resume her habitual smile, to please all of us who know her."

In June, Vincent seems re-engaged with Arlesian womanhood, especially the mature kind, waxing poetic to Bernard about Daudet's description of the "real Lady's shrug of her shoulder" (JLB 628, 6/19/1888, emphasis in original). In July, there is a hint of another very personal disappointment in this strange, cryptic confession disguised as generalization: "If a painter ruins his character by working hard at painting, which makes him sterile for many things, for family life, &c. &c. If as a consequence he paints not only with paint but with self-denial and self-abnegation and a broken heart." (JLB 650, 7/29/1888.) By August, Vincent is singing the praises of and hunting for younger women ("I saw another very tranquil and quite beautiful thing the other day, a young girl with a café au lait complexion ... A real countrywoman, a great virginal look" [JLB 658, 8/9/1888]), and at the end of the month he makes the ill-considered and ill-fated modeling deal with the "little Arlésienne" mentioned in the text (JLB 671, 8/29/1888 or 8/30/1888).

By September, he sounds as much like a jilted lover as a disappointed artist: "I believe that the town of Arles was once infinitely more glorious for the beauty of its women, for the beauty of its traditional dress. Now it all looks sickly and faded as far as character goes." (JLB 686, 9/23/1888 or 9/24/1888.) Yet, again like a frustrated suitor, he cannot let go entirely: "But if you look at it for a long time, the old charm reveals itself. ... I'm beginning now to see better the beauty of the women here." (ibid.) To what extent was Vincent's roller coaster attitude toward Arlesian women a direct function of his interaction with Madame Ginoux? It is not necessary to infer a relationship like the one Vincent had with Agostina Segatori. Vincent's displaced heart may have suffered another disastrous, one-sided "affair" like the one in Paris, or the drama may have unfolded entirely in his own head -- an infatuation unexpressed in observance of his pledge to Theo not to get involved in another "petticoat episode" (JLB 602, 5/1/1888). Either way, it is highly unlikely that he would have revealed his feelings explicitly to Theo, given his recent sad history with Segatori.

After Gauguin left, however, Vincent could be forthcoming about the important role Marie Ginoux played in his emotional recovery after being released from the hospital in Arles. In June 1889, when Theo reported that one of Vincent's (many) portraits of Ginoux had received a compliment, he responded: "that doesn't surprise me, although I think that its merit lies in the model and not in my painting" (JLB 782, 6/18/1889). For the rest of that year, after leaving Arles for the asylum at Saint-Rémy, Vincent clung desperately to some words of generic affection that Marie Ginoux either said to him or he overheard her say (it is not clear which): "when people are friends they're that way for a long time" (JLB 842, 1/20/1890). Neither the start date of Vincent's affection for Madame Ginoux nor the extent to which she reciprocated his feelings is clear from the record (the latter subject will be developed in later chapters). We believe, however, given Vincent's history with such relationships, that his fondness, perhaps starting as a "crush," likely developed quite soon after his arrival in Arles.

Context:
JLB 782, 6/18/1889: "And that, as you say, there was another who found something in the yellow and black figure of a woman, that doesn't surprise me, although I think that its merit lies in the model and not in my painting."

Context:
BVG 464, 2/25/1888: " The women here are beautiful, no humbug about that; but on the other hand the museum in Arles is a horror and a humbug, and ought to be in Tarascon. There is also a museum of antiquities, but these are genuine."
JLB 578, 2/24/1888: " The women really are beautiful here, it's no joke -- on the other hand, the Arles museum is dreadful and a joke, and fit to be in Tarascon -- there's also a museum of antiquities, they're genuine."

Context:
JLB 671, 8/29/1888 or 8/30/1888: "Unfortunately, I fear that the little Arlésienne will stand me up for the rest of the painting. The last time she came she had innocently asked for the money in advance that I'd promised her for all the sittings, and as I made no difficulty about that she scarpered without my seeing her again. Anyway, one of these days she owes it to me to come back, and it would be a bit rich if she didn't turn up at all."

Context:
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "Gauguin has already just about found his Arlésienne, and I could wish that I too had got as far."

In any event, the painting should not be seen as some kind of public record likely to come to official notice. If, in fact, Vincent added the parasol and gloves after the initial paint surface had dried, we believe he did so based on drawings made at the time or perhaps on roughed-in outlines done in the initial, rushed painting effort. Given Vincent's difficulty with perspective, and given the unusual cropping of the parasol, we find the possibility that they were added later "de tête" unlikely. The portrait would never have satisfied, even for a day, with the table's large, undifferentiated triangle of dark green at the bottom. Besides, Madame Ginoux would have worn gloves and carried a parasol in the streets of Arles in early November to complete her Sunday-best costume; and we know from her posture that there was, in fact, a table in front of her when she posed. Placing her accessories there would have been both natural and a way of signaling her intent not to stay for a long visit.

Context:
BVG 626b, 2/1/1890-2/15/1890: "Only the other day I had a letter from Mr. Paul, and it is possible that I shall go and see him soon, for I am longing to make the acquaintance of my brother's little boy, who was born a short time ago, safe and sound fortunately."
JLB 851, 2/2/1890: "I had news of Mr. Paul again the other day, and it's possible I may soon go and see him, especially because I also have a great desire to go and make the acquaintance of my brother's little one, who has fortunately just been born safe and sound."

Context:
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "Then I have an Arlésenne at last, a figure (no. 30 canvas) knocked off in one hour, background pale lemon -- the face grey -- the clothing dark dark dark, just unmixed Prussian blue. She's leaning on a green table and is sitting in a wooden armchair -- coloured orange." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
BVG 559, 11/6/1888: "Then I have an Arlésienne at last, a figure (size 30 Canvas) slashed on in an hour, background pale lemon, the face grey, the clothes black, deep black, with perfectly raw Prussian blue. She is leaning on a green table and seated in an armchair of orange wood."
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "Then I have an Arlésenne at last, a figure (no. 30 canvas) knocked off in one hour, background pale lemon -- the face grey -- the clothing dark dark dark, just unmixed Prussian blue. She's leaning on a green table and is sitting in a wooden armchair -- coloured orange." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "At the moment Gauguin has a canvas in progress of the same night café that I also painted, but with figures seen in the brothels. It promises to become a beautiful thing."

Context:
BVG 576, 2/3/1889: "Here, the so-called worthy town of Arles is such a peculiar sort of place that it is with good reason our friend Gauguin calls it the filthiest spot in the South."
JLB 745, 2/3/1889: "Here -- the so-called good town of Arles is a funny place which for good reasons friend Gauguin calls the filthiest place in the south."

Context:
BVG 558b, 10/28/1888: "What he tells me about Brittany is very interesting, and Pont-Aven is a most marvellous country. Certainly everything there is better, larger, more beautiful than here. It has a more solemn character, and especially purer in its totality and more definite than the shrivelled, scorched, trivial scenery of Provence."
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "What he tells me about Brittany is very interesting, and Pont-Aven is a quite amazing part of the world. Of course, everything there is better, bigger, more beautiful than here. Of a more solemn character, and above all more of a whole and more defined than the small, stunted, scorched countryside of Provence."

Context:
BVG 553, 10/14/1888: "If I had worked more quietly, you can easily see that the mistral would have caught me again. If it is fine here you must take advantage of it, otherwise you would never do anything.
JLB 704, 10/15/1888: "If I'd worked more calmly, you can see clearly that the mistral would have caught me out again. Ah, if the weather's fine here you have to take advantage of it, otherwise you'd never do anything."

Context:
JLB 684, 9/19/1888-9/25/1888: "Projects so often fall through, and the best calculations you make; while by taking advantage of chance, and working from day to day without bias, you do a whole lot of unforeseen things."

Context:
JLB 712, 10/25/1888: "He's very, very interesting as a man, and I have every confidence that with him we'll do a great many things. He'll probably produce a great deal here, and perhaps I shall too, I hope."

Context:
JLB 723, c. 1/1/1888: "Our days pass in working, working always, in the evening we're worn out and go to the café before retiring to bed early. That's our existence."

Context:
BVG B9, 6/24/1888: " Aren't we seeking intensity of thought rather than tranquillity of touch? But under the given conditions of working spontaneously, on the spot, and given the character of it, is a calm, well-regulated touch always possible?"
JLB 633, 6/27/1888: " Isn't it rather intensity of thought than calmness of touch that we're looking for -- and in the given circumstances of impulsive work on the spot and from life, is a calm and controlled touch always possible?"

Context:
BVG B8, 6/23/1888: "What I've been doing looks very ugly -- a drawing of a seated Zouave, a painted sketch of the Zouave against a completely white wall, and finally his portrait against a green door and some orange bricks in a wall. It is harsh, and taking it all in all, ugly and unsuccessful. Yet, because I was tackling a real difficulty with it, it may pave the way for the future."
JLB 632, 6/26/1888: "What I've done is very ugly: a drawing of the Zouave, seated, a painted sketch of the Zouave against an all-white wall and lastly his portrait against a green door and some orange bricks of a wall. It's harsh and, well, ugly and badly done. However, since that's the real difficulty attacked, it may smooth the way in the future." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
BVG B8, 6/23/1888: "What I've been doing looks very ugly -- a drawing of a seated Zouave, a painted sketch of the Zouave against a completely white wall, and finally his portrait against a green door and some orange bricks in a wall. It is harsh, and taking it all in all, ugly and unsuccessful. Yet, because I was tackling a real difficulty with it, it may pave the way for the future."
JLB 632, 6/26/1888: "What I've done is very ugly: a drawing of the Zouave, seated, a painted sketch of the Zouave against an all-white wall and lastly his portrait against a green door and some orange bricks of a wall. It's harsh and, well, ugly and badly done. However, since that's the real difficulty attacked, it may smooth the way in the future." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
JLB 682, 9/18/1888: "If Gauguin came, I'm inclined to believe that we'd make our colours at home ourselves; I daren't do it on my own, because I fear that it would discourage me if it didn't work straightaway."

Context:
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "Gauguin has bought a chest of drawers for the house, various household utensils and 20 metres of very strong canvas."

Context:
JLB 643, 7/17/1888-7/20/1888: "In this way you'll see some of the subjects from this nature that inspires père Cézanne. Because La Crau near Aix is roughly the same thing as the surroundings of Tarascon and La Crau here. Knowing how much you love Cézanne, I thought these croquis of Provence might please you. Not that there are similarities between a drawing by me and by Cézanne; …"

Context:
JLB 624, 6/12/1888 or 6/13/1888: "What I've seen of Cézanne involuntarily comes back to mind, because he has presented the harsh side of Provence so forcefully -- as in the harvest we saw at [Alphonse] Portier's. It has become something quite different from in the spring, but I certainly have no less love for nature that is starting to get scorched as early as now. ... The countryside near Aix -- where Cézanne works -- it's precisely the same as here, it's still the Crau. If, coming home with my canvas, I say to myself: look, I've arrived precisely at père Cézanne's tones, I only want to say this, that Cézanne, belonging absolutely to the region itself, like Zola, and therefore knows it so intimately." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
BVG 497, 6/12/1888-6/13/1888: "If coming home with my canvas, I say to myself, 'Look! I've got the very tones of old Cézanne!' I only mean that Cézanne like Zola [Émile Zola, 1840-1902; French writer] is so absolutely part of the countryside, and knows it so intimately, that you must make the same calculations in your head to arrive at the same tones."
JLB 624, 6/12/1888 or 6/13/1888: "If, coming home with my canvas, I say to myself: look, I've arrived precisely at père Cézanne's tones, I only want to say this, that Cézanne, belonging absolutely to the region itself, like Zola, and therefore knows it so intimately, you have to do the same internal calculation to achieve the same tones."

Context:
JLB 633, 6/27/1888: "If you saw my canvases, what would you say about them -- you wouldn't find Cézanne's almost diffident and conscientious brushstroke there."

Context:
BVG B13, 7/25/1888: "Daumier is also a great genius."
JLB 651, 7/30/1888: "Daumier is also a really great genius."

Context:
JLB 673, 9/3/1888: "Tartarin, now, is so genuinely great -- with the greatness of a masterpiece, just like Candide" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG 552, 10/13/1888: "Yes, I am content with my lot, it isn't a superb, sublime country, this; it is only a Daumier come to life."
JLB 703, 10/13/1888: "Yes, I'm happy with my lot; it isn't a superb and sublime country, it's all something out of Daumier come to life."

Context:
JLB 695, 10/3/1888: "Only I'm afraid that you'll find Brittany more beautiful -- even though you may well see nothing more beautiful than things out of Daumier, figures here are often pure Daumier."

Context:
BVG B13, 7/25/1888: "When Delacroix paints humanity, life in general, instead of an epoch, he belongs no less to the same family of universal geniuses."
JLB 651, 7/30/1888: "When Delacroix paints humanity, life in general instead of an epoch, he belongs to the same family of universal geniuses all the same."

Context:
BVG B13, 7/25/1888: "When Delacroix paints humanity, life in general, instead of an epoch, he belongs no less to the same family of universal geniuses."
JLB 651, 7/30/1888: "When Delacroix paints humanity, life in general instead of an epoch, he belongs to the same family of universal geniuses all the same."

Context:
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "At the moment Gauguin has a canvas in progress of the same night café that I also painted, but with figures seen in the brothels."

Context:
BVG B19, 10/7/1888: "I won't sign this study, for I never work from memory. There is some colour in it which will please you, but once again, I have painted a study for you which I should have preferred not to paint."
JLB 698, 10/5/1888: "But I don't want to sign this study, because I never work from memory -- there will be colour in it, which will suit you, but to repeat, here I'm doing a study for you that I would prefer not to do."

Context:
BVG B19, 10/7/1888: "I don't mean I won't do it after another ten years of painting studies, but, to tell the honest truth, my attention is so fixed on what is possible and really exists that I hardly have the desire or the courage to strive for the ideal as it might result from my abstract studies."
JLB 698, 10/5/1888: "Later, after another ten years of studies, all right, but in very truth I have so much curiosity for what's possible and what really exists that I have so little desire or courage to search for the ideal, in so far as it could result from my abstract studies" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG B19, 10/7/1888: "I won't say that I don't turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colours, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true."
JLB 698, 10/5/1888: "I'm not saying that I don't flatly turn my back on reality to turn a study into a painting -- by arranging the colour, by enlarging, by simplifying -- but I have such a fear of separating myself from what's possible and what's right as far as form is concerned."

Context:
BVG B21, 11/20/1889: "I don't say one might not try one's hand at it after a whole life long of experimentation, of hand-to-hand struggle with nature, but personally, I don't want to trouble my head with such things."
JLB 822, 11/26/1889: "I'm not saying that one may not take the risk after a whole manly life of searching, of fighting hand-to-hand with reality, but as far as I'm concerned I don't want to rack my brains over that sort of thing."

Context:
BVG 607, 9/19/1889: "Altogether I think nothing in it at all good except the 'Field of Wheat,' the 'Mountain," the "Orchard,' the 'Olives' with the blue hills and the portrait and the 'Entrance to the Quarry,' and the rest tells me nothing, because it lacks individual intention and feeling in the lines."
JLB 805, 9/20/1889: "All in all the only things I consider a little good in it are the Wheatfield, the Mountain, the Orchard, the Olive trees with the blue hills and the Portrait and the Entrance to the quarry, and the rest says nothing to me, because it lacks personal will, feeling in the lines" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG 097, 5/28/1877: "Last week, I got as far as Genesis 23, where Abraham buries Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, the plot he had bought, and without really thinking about it I drew a little sketch of how I imagined the place; it is not worth much, but I enclose it herewith."
JLB 116, 5/28/1877: "Last week I got as far as Gen. XXIII, the burial of Sarah in the field that Abraham bought to bury her there in the cave of Machpelah, and I couldn't help making a little drawing of how I imagined that place to be, it's nothing very special but I'm enclosing it anyway."

A year later, Vincent writes more calmly but still unequivocally to Anton van Rappard: "I very seldom work from the imagination -- I almost never practise that" (JLB 437, 3/13/1884, emphasis in original). But at the same time he adds a caveat to this rule that re-opens the door to images that are more a product of the imagination than of nature. Explaining how his best figure drawings usually emerge after repeated efforts using the same model, Vincent writes: "I drew them repeatedly before these and the feeling wasn't in them. After that -- after those iron-like ones -- came these; so too the clumsy and awkward ones. How it comes about that I express something with them [emphasis in original] is: because the thing has already formed itself in my mind when I begin [emphasis added]." (ibid.) The argument appears to be that repeated drawings of the same figure (from nature) gradually create a kind of Aristotelian "ideal" in his head which can guide his hand to a better image. This strikes us as just another sadly convoluted rationalization for his unruly process and high ratio of failed images.

Context:
BVG 418, 7/1/1885: "Tell him that I long most of all to learn how to produce those very inaccuracies, those very aberrations, reworkings, transformations of reality, as may turn it into, well -- a lie if you like -- but truer than the literal truth."
JLB 515, 7/14/1885: "Tell him that my great desire is to learn to make such inaccuracies, such variations, reworkings, alterations of the reality, that it might become, very well -- lies if you will -- but -- truer than the literal truth."

Context:
BVG 403, 4/15/1885-4/30/1885: "The first time it was his theory about colours, but later I read a conversation he had with other painters about the making, namely the creation of a picture. He pretended that the best pictures are made from memory. Par coeur! He said. And about that conversation I read that, when all those worthy people were going home in the evening, Delacroix, with his usual vivacity and passion, loudly called after them in the middle of the boulevard, Par coeur! Par coeur! Probably to the great astonishment of the respectable passers-by."
JLB 496, 4/28/1885: "The first was his theory of colour, but I also read a conversation that he had with other painters about the making, that is the creation, of a painting. He asserted that one made the best paintings -- from memory. By heart! he said. And I read of the conversation in question that when all those good people were going home late in the evening -- Delacroix, with his usual vivacity and passion -- shouted out after them in the middle of the boulevard, By heart! by heart!, probably to the great surprise of respectable passers-by."

Context:
BVG B19, 10/7/1888: " I don't mean I won't do it after another ten years of painting studies, but, to tell the honest truth, my attention is so fixed on what is possible and really exists that I hardly have the desire or the courage to strive for the ideal as it might result from my abstract studies."
JLB 698, 10/5/1888: " Later, after another ten years of studies, all right, but in very truth I have so much curiosity for what's possible and what really exists that I have so little desire or courage to search for the ideal, in so far as it could result from my abstract studies" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG B21, 11/20/1889: " When Gauguin was in Arles, I once or twice allowed myself to be led astray into abstraction, as you know, for instance in the Berceuse, in the Woman Reading a Novel, black against a yellow bookcase. At the time, I considered abstraction an attractive method. But that was delusion, dear friend, and one soon comes up against a brick wall."
JLB 822, 11/26/1889: " When Gauguin was in Arles, I once or twice allowed myself to be led into abstraction, as you know, in a woman rocking a cradle, a dark woman reading novels in a yellow library, and at that time abstraction seemed an attractive route to me. But that's enchanted ground, -- my good fellow -- and one soon finds oneself up against a wall."

Context:
BVG B19, 10/7/1888: "I won't say that I don't turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colours, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true."
JLB 698, 10/5/1888: "I'm not saying that I don't flatly turn my back on reality to turn a study into a painting -- by arranging the colour, by enlarging, by simplifying -- but I have such a fear of separating myself from what's possible and what's right as far as form is concerned."

Context:
BVG 607, 9/19/1889: "Gauguin and Bernard ... do not ask the correct shape of a tree at all, but they do insist that one can say if the shape is round or square -- and honestly, they are right, exasperated as they are by certain people's photographic and empty perfection. They will not ask the correct name of the mountains, but they will say: By God, the mountains were blue, were they? Then chuck on some blue and don't go on telling me that it was a blue rather like this or that, it was blue, wasn't it? Good -- make them blue and it's enough! Gauguin is sometimes like a genius when he is explaining that."
JLB 805, 9/20/1889: "Bernard and Gauguin feel a little bit, they won't ask for the correct shape of a tree at all, but they absolutely insist that one says if the shape is round or square -- and my word, they're right -- Exasperated by certain people's photographic and inane perfection. They won't ask for the correct tone of the mountains but they'll say: for Christ's sake, were the mountains blue, then chuck on some blue and don't go telling me that it was a blue a bit like this or like that, it was blue wasn't it? Good -- make them blue and that's enough! Gauguin is a genius sometimes when he explains that."

Context:
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "But if only you'd been with us on Sunday! We saw a red vineyard, completely red like red wine. In the distance it became yellow, and then a green sky with a sun, fields violet and sparkling yellow here and there after the rain in which the setting sun was reflected."

Context:
BVG 537, 9/16/1888: "I went for a splendid walk by myself today among the vineyards."
JLB 681, 9/16/1888: "I took a magnificent walk by myself in the vineyards today."

Context:
BVG 562, 11/16/1888: " Gauguin gives me the courage to imagine things, and certainly things from the imagination take on a more mysterious character."
JLB 719, 11/11/1888 or 11/12/1888: " Gauguin gives me courage to imagine, and the things of the imagination do indeed take on a more mysterious character."

Context:
BVG 559, 11/6/1888: "Just now he has in hand some women in a vineyard, altogether from memory, but if he does not spoil it or leave it unfinished it will be very fine and very unusual."
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "At the moment he's working on some women in a vineyard, entirely from memory, but if he doesn't spoil it or leave it there unfinished it will be very fine and very strange."

Context:
BVG 561, 11/12/1888: "What will please you is that Gauguin has finished his canvas of the 'Women Grape Gatherers [W 317].' It is as beautiful as the Negresses, and if you paid say the same price as for the Negresses (400, I think) it would be well worth it."
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: "What will please you is that Gauguin has finished his canvas of the women picking grapes, it's as fine as the negresses and if, say, you paid the same price for it as for the negresses (400 I think) that would certainly be good too."

Context:
BVG 562, 11/16/1888: "Gauguin gives me the courage to imagine things, and certainly things from the imagination take on a more mysterious character."
JLB 719, 11/11/1888 or 11/12/1888: "Gauguin gives me courage to imagine, and the things of the imagination do indeed take on a more mysterious character."

Context:
JLB 719, 11/11/1888 or 11/12/1888: "Gauguin's working on a very original nude woman in some hay with some pigs."

Context:
BVG 561, 11/12/1888: " I am going to set myself to work from memory often, and the canvases from memory are always less awkward, and have a more artistic look than studies from nature, especially when one works in mistral weather."
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: " I'm going to set myself to work often from memory, and the canvases done from memory are always less awkward and have a more artistic look than the studies from nature, especially when I'm working in mistral conditions."

Context:
BVG B3, 4/9/1888: "By the way, I have seen bullfights in the arena, or rather sham fights, seeing that the bulls were numerous but there was nobody to fight them. However, the crowd was magnificent, those great colourful multitudes piled up one above the other on two or three galleries, with the effect of sun and shade and the shadow cast by the enormous ring."
JLB 596, 4/12/1888: "By the way, have seen bullfights in the arenas, or rather, simulated fights, seeing that the bulls were numerous but nobody was fighting them. But the crowd was magnificent, great multicoloured crowds. One on top of the other on 2, 3 tiers, with the effect of sun and shade and the shadow cast by the immense circle."

Context:
BVG 474, 4/9/1888: "The arenas are a fine sight when there's sunshine and a crowd."
JLB 594, 4/9/1888: "The bullring looks so beautiful when there's sunshine and a crowd."

Context:
JLB 594, 4/9/1888: "The month will be hard for you and me, but nevertheless, if you can manage it, it's to our advantage to do as many orchards in blossom as we can. I'm now well under way and I need 10 more, I think, same subject. You know I'm changeable in my work, and this rage to paint orchards won't last forever. After that it may be bullrings."

Context:
BVG B3, 4/9/1888: "By the way, I have seen bullfights in the arena, or rather sham fights, seeing that the bulls were numerous but there was nobody to fight them. However, the crowd was magnificent, those great colourful multitudes piled up one above the other on two or three galleries, with the effect of sun and shade and the shadow cast by the enormous ring."
JLB 596, 4/12/1888: "By the way, have seen bullfights in the arenas, or rather, simulated fights, seeing that the bulls were numerous but nobody was fighting them. But the crowd was magnificent, great multicoloured crowds. One on top of the other on 2, 3 tiers, with the effect of sun and shade and the shadow cast by the immense circle."

Context:
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "It's good that you've at last begun to read Au bonheur des dames &c. There are so many things in it, as there are in Guy de Maupassant [Guy de Maupassant, 1850-1893; French writer] as well."

Context:
JLB 719, 11/11/1888 or 11/12/1888: "You'll be pleased to hear that I've had a letter from Jet Mauve thanking us for the painting. A very nice letter, in which she talks of times gone by."

Context:
BVG 562, 11/16/1888: "I know you will be pleased to hear that I have had a letter from Jet Mauve, thanking us for the picture. A very nice letter, in which she speaks of old times."
JLB 719, 11/11/1888 or 11/12/1888: "You'll be pleased to hear that I've had a letter from Jet Mauve thanking us for the painting. A very nice letter, in which she talks of times gone by."

Context:
JLB 713, 10/27/1888: "You'll find enclosed a letter from our mother, which she asks me to pass on to you."

Context:
JLB 719, 11/11/1888 or 11/12/1888: "I've been working on two canvases. A reminiscence of our garden at Etten with cabbages, cypresses, dahlias and figures."

Context:
BVG W9, 11/16/1888: "All the same, let us suppose that the two ladies out for a walk are you and our mother; …"
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "In the same way, let's suppose that these two women walking are you and our mother."

Context:
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "The younger of the two women walking is wearing a Scottish shawl with green and orange checks and carrying a red parasol. The old one has a blue-violet shawl, almost black. But a bunch of dahlias, some lemon yellow, others variegated pink and white, explode against this sombre figure."

Context:
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "But a bunch of dahlias, some lemon yellow, others variegated pink and white, explode against this sombre figure. Behind them a few emerald-green cedar or cypress bushes. Behind these cypresses one catches a glimpse of a bed of pale green and red cabbages, surrounded by a border of little white flowers. The sandy path is a raw orange, the foliage of two beds of scarlet geraniums is very green. Finally, in the middle ground is a maidservant dressed in blue who's arranging plants with a profusion of white, pink, yellow and vermilion-red flowers."

Context:
BVG W9, 11/16/1888: "In a similar manner the bizarre lines, purposely selected and multiplied, meandering all through the picture, may fail to give the garden a vulgar resemblance, but may present it to our minds as seen in a dream, depicting its character, and at the same time stranger than it is in reality."
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "In the same way the bizarre lines, sought out and multiplied, and snaking all over the painting, aren't intended to render the garden in its vulgar resemblance but draw it for us as if seen in a dream, in character and yet at the same time stranger than the reality."

Context:
BVG W9, 11/16/1888: "All the same, let us suppose that the two ladies out for a walk are you and our mother; let us even suppose that there is not the least, absolutely not the least vulgar and fatuous resemblance -- yet the deliberate choice of colour, the somber violet with the blotch of violent citron yellow of the dahlias, suggests Mother's personality to me."
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "In the same way, let's suppose that these two women walking are you and our mother. Let's even suppose then that there may be not the slightest, absolutely not the slightest vulgar and fatuous resemblance, the deliberate choice of colour, the dark violet violently blotched with the lemon yellow of the dahlias, suggests Mother's personality to me."

The threshold question is why does Vincent bother making this elaborate argument. His sister only had a letter sketch and a description that included colors. He had acknowledged many times that his family never understood his art and never appreciated why a painting should not look like its subject -- especially when the subject was a particular person. One suspects strongly that Vincent is arguing with himself -- trying to convince himself of the ideas that justify this, to him, bizarre and unnatural image. Ultimately, of course, all such arguments are with his long dead, inconvincible father (and, intermediately, with his brother) over whether or not he is a true artist. It is also interesting to note how imperfectly (idiosyncratically), Vincent has absorbed Gauguin's symbolist rhetoric. Dickens's characters (like figures out of English woodcuts) are representative; they are not "symbolic" in the sense that Gauguin meant it. A symbolic figure is not a "type," as Vincent understood that term. It is the embodiment of the abstract ideal, not the distillation of many specifics -- an inductive, not a deductive, truth. It is hard to name a less "symbolic" writer (in this sense) than Dickens.

Context:
BVG W9, 11/16/1888: "There you are, I know it isn't perhaps much of a resemblance, but for me it conveys the poetic character and the style of the garden as I feel them."
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "There you are, I know it isn't perhaps much of a resemblance, but for me it conveys the poetic character and the style of the garden as I feel them."

In his letter of rejection to La Revue Indépendante, Gauguin wrote archly, "I am mystified by the honor you accord me by your invitation to exhibit my Martinique work on the premises of the Revue Indépendante. I regret I am unable to accept an invitation that my friend Schuffenecker sought for himself in vain." (For the complete text of the letter, see Ch. 36, n. 33.) Ultimately, Gauguin's boycott (and his successful effort to recruit Vincent to his boycott [see Ch. 35, n. 222]) of the Revue Indépendante show appears to be just the latest installment in his ongoing feud with Signac, Camille Pissarro, and the other Neo-Impressionists. He writes to Schuffenecker about his refusal in the voice of a melodrama villain rubbing his hands in glee, "You can see that I am not beating about the bush and am exploiting an opportunity to take revenge on your behalf? And to say what I think about all such cliques. I wish I could see those gentlemen's faces when they read my letter!"

The more likely story is that Gauguin asked Vincent -- just as he asked Bernard (see Ch. 35, n. 219) -- not to reveal to Theo that Gauguin was orchestrating the boycott of the Revue show for fear of alienating his dealer. This, of course, leaves Vincent sputtering defensively at unconvincing length to explain his sudden and nonsensical reversal on the all-important subject of showing his work: "I find it so disgusting to pay for the planned exhibition with a canvas that in reality there aren't two answers to this gentleman's letter [i.e., the invitation from the Revue editor Édouard Dujardin]. There's one, and you'll find it enclosed. Only I'm sending it to you and not to him so that you know my thoughts and so that you can simply tell him that I've changed my mind and haven't the slightest desire to exhibit at this moment. It's no use at all getting angry with the chap, it's better to be tritely polite. So no exhibition at the Revue Indépendante, ... Now I declare here that I absolutely do not know what useful purpose that [exhibiting at the Revue] even serves, and it would seem to me more just, certainly, that you should simply keep the studies that you liked in your apartment, that you send the others back to me here rolled up, since the apartment is small and if you kept everything they'd clutter it up. So, without our hurrying I'm preparing the wherewithal here to stage a more serious exhibition. ... Now with regard to the few canvases at Tanguy's or Thomas's [Georges Thomas (Père Thomas), ?-after 1908; art dealer in Paris] place ... that's a matter of such absolute indifference to me that in reality it isn't worth talking about -- but you should know above all that I'm really not at all attached to the idea. I know in advance what I'll do the moment I have enough canvases. For the moment I'm simply busying myself with making them." (JLB 718, 11/10/1888.)

Context:
BVG 561, 11/12/1888: "Only I am sending it to you and not to him so that you may know what I think, and that you may simply tell him that I have changed my mind, and at the moment have no desire to exhibit. Getting angry with the scoundrel doesn't do the slightest bit of good, it is better to be conventionally polite."
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: "Only I'm sending it to you and not to him so that you know my thoughts and so that you can simply tell him that I've changed my mind and haven't the slightest desire to exhibit at this moment. It's no use at all getting angry with the chap, it's better to be tritely polite."

Context:
BVG 561, 11/12/1888: "I have received a letter from M. C. Dujardin on the subject of the exhibition of my pictures in his black hole."
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: "I've received a letter from Mr. E. Dujardin regarding the exhibition of some canvases of mine in his dark hole."

Context:
BVG 561, 11/12/1888: "But as for the Revue Indépendante, please tell them curtly it's no go. It's too good an opportunity, and you will feel that they are greatly mistaken if they think I am going to pay for being put on view in such a dark, suspect little hole as that."
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: "But as for the Revue Indépendante I'd ask you to put a complete end to it, the opportunity is too good, and you'll feel that they're completely mistaken if they imagine I'm going to pay to have myself put on show in such a small, dark and above all scheming hole."

Context:
BVG 561, 11/12/1888: " I am go disgusted at the idea of handing over a canvas in payment for the proposed exhibition that really there is only one possible answer to the gentleman's letter."
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: " I find it so disgusting to pay for the planned exhibition with a canvas that in reality there aren't two answers to this gentleman's letter."

Context:
BVG W9, 11/16/1888: "But remember I have not told you that my friend Paul Gauguin, an impressionist painter, is now living with me, and that we are very happy together. He strongly encourages me to work often from pure imagination."
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "But I remember that I haven't yet told you that my friend Paul Gauguin, an Impressionist painter, now lives with me and that we're very happy together, he encourages me a lot often to work purely from the imagination."

Context:
JLB 723, 12/1/1888: "Only I've spoiled that thing I did of the garden at Nuenen and I feel that habit is also necessary for works of the imagination."

Context:
JLB 720, 11/12/1888: "The figure in the Scottish plaid with the orange and green checks standing out against the dark green of the cypress, this contrast even more exaggerated by the red parasol, gives me an idea of you, vaguely a figure like those in Dickens's novels."

Context:
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: "I myself have also finished a canvas of a vineyard, all purple and yellow with little blue and violet figures and a yellow sun. I think you'll be able to place this canvas next to Monticelli's landscapes."

Context:
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "The thing is, regarding the impasto things, Gauguin has told me how to get rid of the grease by washing them from time to time. What's more, when that's done I must work on them again to retouch them."

Context:
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "They all think that what I've sent was done too hastily. I wouldn't deny it, and I'll make certain changes."

Context:
BVG 563, 11/23/1888: "They all think what I have sent too hastily done. I do not contradict it, and I will make some alterations."
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "They all think that what I've sent was done too hastily. I wouldn't deny it, and I'll make certain changes."

Context:
BVG 563, 11/23/1888: "Fortunately for me, I know well enough what I want, and am basically utterly indifferent to the criticism that I work too hurriedly. In answer to that, I have done some things even more hurriedly these last few days."
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "Fortunately for me I know what I want better than they believe and am, basically, extremely indifferent to the criticism of working hurriedly. In reply I've produced work these last few days even more hurriedly." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
BVG 563, 11/23/1888: " Gauguin, in spite of himself and in spite of me, has more or less proved to me that it is time I was varying my work a little. I am beginning to compose from memory, and all my studies will still be useful for that sort of work, recalling to me things I have seen."
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: " Gauguin, in spite of himself and in spite of me, has proved to me a little that it was time for me to vary things a bit -- I'm beginning to compose from memory, and all my studies will still be useful to me for that work, as they remind me of former things I've seen."

Context:
JLB 722, 11/21/1888: "Here's a croquis of the latest canvas I'm working on, another sower. Immense lemon yellow disc for the sun. Green-yellow sky with pink clouds. The field is violet, the sower and the tree Prussian Blue. No. 30 canvas."

Context:
BVG B21, 11/20/1889: "And yet, once again I allowed myself to be led astray into reaching for stars that are too big -- another failure -- and I have had my fill of that."
JLB 822, 11/26/1889: "However, once again I'm allowing myself to do stars too big, &c., new setback, and I've enough of that."

Context:
BVG 558b, 10/28/1888: "And I think that in the evening we will bring along neighbours and friends, and, while chatting away, we will work in the evening as in the daytime. Portraits of people in the light of a gas lamp, it certainly seems to me it can be done."
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "And I believe that in the evening we'll bring neighbours and friends here, and that in the evening we'll work as in the daytime, chatting as we do so. Portraits of people lit by gaslight -- that always seems to me a thing to do."

Context:
BVG B19a, 11/2/1888: "I must say I cannot understand why I don't do studies after the figure, seeing that it is often so difficult for me to imagine the painting of the future theoretically as otherwise than a new succession of powerful, simple portraitists, comprehensible to the general public."
JLB 716, 11/1/1888 or 11/2/1888: "I declare I don't understand why I don't do figure studies, while theoretically it's sometimes so difficult for me to imagine the painting of the future as anything other than a new series of powerful portraitists, simple and comprehensible to the whole of the general public."

Context:
JLB 722, 11/21/1888: "If at the age of forty I do a painting of figures or portraits the way I feel it, I think that will be worth more than a more or less serious success now."

Context:
BVG 560, 12/4/1888: "But I have made portraits of a whole family, that of the postman whose head I had done previously -- the man, his wife, the baby, the little boy, and the son of sixteen, all characters and very French, though the first has the look of a Russian. Size 15 canvases. You know how I feel about this, how I feel in my element, and that it consoles me up to a certain point for not being a doctor. I hope to get on with this and to be able to get more careful posing, paid for by portraits. And if I manage to do this whole family better still, at least I shall have done something to my liking and something individual."
JLB 723, 12/1/1888: "But I've done the portraits of an entire family, the family of the postman whose head I did before -- the man, his wife, the baby, the young boy and the 16-year-old son, all characters and very French, although they have a Russian look. No. 15 canvases. You can sense how in my element that makes me feel, and that it consoles me to a certain extent for not being a doctor. I hope to persevere with this and be able to obtain more serious sittings, which can be paid for with portraits. And if I manage to do this entire family even better, I'll have done at least one thing to my taste and personal." (Emphasis in original.)

Also in January, Vincent confirms that Madame Augustine Roulin was not in favor of posing for Vincent, further suggesting that money persuaded her (or persuaded her husband to persuade her) (JLB 741, 1/22/1889). Referring to his December portrait of the postman's wife, Vincent writes: "If I could finish that, it would give me great pleasure but I fear she won't want to pose any more, with her husband away" (ibid.). There is no substantiation for the numerous claims in the literature that Vincent was close to the Roulin family. Undoubtedly Vincent wanted to be close to this "very French" family (JLB 723, 12/1/1888) -- as he did to so many other families from the Tersteegs to the Loyers (Sarah Ursula Loyer-Wilson, 1815-1895; lodging-house keeper in London) to the Hoorniks to the de Groots. But there is no evidence, either direct or indirect, to argue that he succeeded in that ambition, and some evidence to the contrary.

Second, we see no reason other than size why the two similar, smaller portraits of Camille (Portrait of Camille Roulin [F 537 JH 1644] and Portrait of Camille Roulin [F 538 JH 1645]) should not be attributed to this first session.

Third, we doubt that Madame Roulin posed in this first burst of portraits except for the two paintings in which she awkwardly holds the baby Marcelle for Vincent's obviously very quick renderings (Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 491 JH 1638] and Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 490 JH 1637].) Pickvance includes one of these paintings (Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 491 JH 1638]) on his list, but excludes the other, larger one (Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 490 JH 1637]). Druick and Zegers agree, arguing on the basis of Dorn that the single portrait of Madame Roulin (Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin [F 503 JH 1646]) preceded and provided a tracing for the later, larger portrait of mother and baby, Mother Roulin with Her Baby (F 490 JH 1637) (Druick and Zegers, p. 233 and p. 389; see Ch. 35, n. 51). But we would argue that the portraits were done in reverse order. The poses, dress, colors, and gestures are similar in Mother Roulin with Her Baby (F 490 JH 1637) and Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 491 JH 1638]. They differ mostly in size and development. Mother Roulin with Her Baby (F 491 JH 1638) appears to be a hasty first attempt at the final image in Mother Roulin with Her Baby (F 490 JH 1637). The single portrait (Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin [F 503 JH 1646]), on the other hand, is an entirely different enterprise, with different impasto, different orientation (horizontal), different composition, different brushwork. It is done with much more attention to detail and finish.

Druick and Zegers offer an elegant and plausible argument, based on Vincent's use of tracings from one painting to the next, that Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin (F 503 JH 1646) was executed between the two similar mother-and-child paintings (i.e., between Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 491 JH 1638] and Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 490 JH 1637]) (Druick and Zegers, p. 233.) We are concerned that this sequencing runs counter to Vincent's usual habit of working from less finished to more finished, especially in portraiture. To us, a more likely (but not provable) scenario is that Vincent attempted both of the roughly-done double portraits of mother and daughter at the same early sitting -- rushed because of the baby and because of Madame Roulin's impatience -- and then used a tracing of the second of these works (Mother Roulin with Her Baby [F 490 JH 1637]) to prepare his canvas for Augustine's second sitting -- a sitting in which she was not accompanied by the baby and therefore Vincent could, and did, take more trouble with the image. This was the sitting at which Gauguin did his portrait of Madame Roulin -- which shares size and composition with Vincent's Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin (F 503 JH 1646) -- and which, in our opinion, probably was only possible because of Gauguin's participation. Finally, in Vincent's little portrait of Marcelle by herself (The Baby Marcelle Roulin [F 441 JH 1641]) -- which is not on Pickvance's list -- Marcelle is wearing the same bonnet as in Mother Roulin with Her Baby (F 491 JH 1638), which is on Pickvance's list.

Context:
BVG 560, 12/4/1888: "Just now I am completely swamped with studies, studies, studies, and this will go on for quite a while -- it makes such a mess that it breaks my heart, and yet it will provide me with some property when I'm forty."
JLB 723, 12/1/1888: "At the moment I'm really in the shit, studies, studies, studies, and that'll go on for some time yet -- such a mess that it breaks my heart -- and yet that'll give me neatness when I'm 40."

Context:
BVG 534, 9/9/1888: "For a visitor there will be the prettier room upstairs, which I shall try to make as much as possible like the boudoir of a really artistic woman."
JLB 677, 9/9/1888: "For putting somebody up, there'll be the prettiest room upstairs, which I'll try to make as nice as possible, like a woman's boudoir, really artistic."

Context:
BVG 534, 9/9/1888: "About the beds, I have bought country beds, big double ones instead of iron ones. That gives an appearance of solidity, durability and quiet, and if it takes a little more bedding, so much the worse, but it must have character."
JLB 677, 9/9/1888: "So for the beds I bought local beds, two wide double beds, instead of iron beds. It gives a look of solidity, durability, calm, and if it takes a bit more bed-linen, that's too bad, but it must have character."

Context:
JLB 853, 2/9/1890 or 2/10/1890: "It is a study of his armchair of dark, red-brown wood, the seat of greenish straw, and in the absent person's place a lighted candlestick and some modern novels. If you have the opportunity, as a memento of him, please go and look a little at this study again, which is entirely in broken tones of green and red."

Context:
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "In the meantime I can tell you anyway that the last two studies are rather funny. No. 30 canvases, a wooden and straw chair all yellow on red tiles against a wall (daytime). Then Gauguin's armchair, red and green, night effect, on the seat two novels and a candle. On sailcloth in thick impasto." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
BVG 563, 11/23/1888: "Meanwhile I can at all events tell you that the last two studies are odd enough. Size 30 canvases, a wooden rush-bottomed chair all yellow on red tiles against a wall (daytime). Then Gauguin's armchair, red and green night effect, wall and floor red and green again, on the seat two novels and a candle, on thin canvas with a thick impasto."
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "In the meantime I can tell you anyway that the last two studies are rather funny. No. 30 canvases, a wooden and straw chair all yellow on red tiles against a wall (daytime). Then Gauguin's armchair, red and green, night effect, on the seat two novels and a candle. On sailcloth in thick impasto." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
BVG 563, 11/23/1888: "Meanwhile I can at all events tell you that the last two studies are odd enough. Size 30 canvases, a wooden rush-bottomed chair all yellow on red tiles against a wall (daytime). Then Gauguin's armchair, red and green night effect, wall and floor red and green again, on the seat two novels and a candle, on thin canvas with a thick impasto."
JLB 721, 11/19/1888: "In the meantime I can tell you anyway that the last two studies are rather funny. No. 30 canvases, a wooden and straw chair all yellow on red tiles against a wall (daytime). Then Gauguin's armchair, red and green, night effect, on the seat two novels and a candle. On sailcloth in thick impasto." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
JLB 853, 2/9/1890 or 2/10/1890: "A few days before we parted, when illness forced me to enter an asylum, I tried to paint 'his empty place.'"

Context:
JLB 293, 12/11/1882: "Edwin Drood was Dickens's last work, and Luke Fildes, having got in touch with D. through those small illustrations, comes into his room on the day of his death -- sees his empty chair standing there, and so it was that one of the old Nos. of The Graphic had that striking drawing THE EMPTY CHAIR." (Emphasis in original.)

Context:
JLB 140, 2/10/1878: "You can imagine that those days flew by and when, after bringing Pa to the station and watching the train or even only the smoke for as long as it was in sight, I came back to my room and Pa's chair was standing there by the little desk on which the books and notebooks were still lying from the day before, even though I know that we'll see each other again quite soon, I broke down and cried like a child."

Context:
BVG 626a, 2/10/1890-2/11/1890: "A few days before we parted company, when my illness forced me to go into an asylum, I tried to paint 'his empty place.' It is a study of his wooden armchair, brown and dark red, the seat of greenish straw, and in place of the absent person, a lighted candle in a candlestick and some modern novels."
JLB 853, 2/9/1890 or 2/10/1890: "A few days before we parted, when illness forced me to enter an asylum, I tried to paint 'his empty place.' It is a study of his armchair of dark, red-brown wood, the seat of greenish straw, and in the absent person's place a lighted candlestick and some modern novels."

Context:
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "Gauguin has bought a chest of drawers for the house, various household utensils and 20 metres of very strong canvas, a whole lot of things we needed, which it was more convenient to have anyway."

Context:
JLB 717, 11/3/1888: "Gauguin has bought a chest of drawers for the house, various household utensils and 20 metres of very strong canvas, a whole lot of things we needed, which it was more convenient to have anyway."

Context:
JLB 677, 9/9/1888: "So for the beds I bought local beds, two wide double beds, instead of iron beds. It gives a look of solidity, durability, calm, and if it takes a bit more bed-linen, that's too bad, but it must have character."

Context:
BVG 534, 9/9/1888: "I want to make it really an artists' house -- not precious, on the contrary nothing precious, but everything from the chairs to the pictures having character."
JLB 677, 9/9/1888: "I really want to make of it -- an artists' house but not precious, on the contrary, nothing precious, but everything from the chair to the painting having character" (emphasis in original).

Context:
BVG 521, 8/9/1888: "Besides that, provided we keep on good terms and are determined not to quarrel, we shall be in a stronger position as far as reputation goes."
JLB 658, 8/9/1888: "The fact remains that provided we lived in harmony and with an understanding not to quarrel, we'd gain a firmer position as far as reputation goes."

Context:
JLB 638, 7/10/1888 or 7/10/1888: "At the moment I have a charwoman, who sweeps and scrubs the house twice a week for 1 franc; I place great hopes in her, to be able to count on her making the beds if we decide to sleep at home."

Context:
JLB 718, 11/10/1888: "He [Gauguin] knows how to cook perfectly, I think that I'll learn that from him, it's really convenient" (emphasis in original).

These familiar arguments add up to some fuzzy math: "For my part, I'd wish just to ask you too that I'm asking for no more than to continue at a very ordinary sum per month of 150 (and the same for Gauguin). Which in any case reduces my personal spending." (ibid.) In fact, Vincent had been receiving 250 francs a month from Theo. So even as he assured his brother that "the two of us won't even spend what living here was costing me just on my own," he asked for 300 francs per month (i.e., 150 francs each). Theo began sending 100 francs (50 each) thrice monthly, according to the usual timetable (1st, 10th, and 20th of each month) (JLB 717, 11/3/1888).

But Vincent immediately ran into problems with extraordinary expenses: in the first instance, almost a hundred francs that, supposedly, Gauguin had spent on additional furnishings for the house (ibid.). Calling them "a whole lot of things we needed," Vincent urged Theo to "reimburse" Gauguin for these expenses: "Only we've made a note of all that he paid, which comes to nearly 100 francs, which we'd pay him back at New Year, or in the month of March for example, and then the chest of drawers &c. would belong to us of course" (ibid.). Vincent's story is suspicious and may be designed to cover another spasm of his own spending. (Theo warned Vincent to avoid "accidents" -- by which he meant irresponsible expenditures [JLB 713, 10/27/1888].) In mid-November, Vincent asked for an additional 50 francs, calculating that it was money Theo owed Gauguin for the last ten days of October (JLB 718, 11/10/1888). Given Vincent's guilt over pressuring Theo for money, and Gauguin's success at selling, it would be surprising if Vincent intended for this money to reach his houseguest. In late November, again oddly, Vincent urged his brother once more to reimburse Gauguin for the earlier expenses for furnishing the Yellow House: "Only we mustn't forget that either at New Year or in March, Gauguin will have to be repaid the money he may have laid out, for example for sheets or things that would remain in the studio" (JLB 722, 11/21/1888). Yet, by Gauguin's telling, he had his sheets sent from Paris (see Ch. 35, n. 273).

In December, Theo again sent Vincent an extra 50 francs (JLB 724, 12/11/1888). There is no indication that Vincent told Gauguin about these supplementary payments when the two men pooled their money into Gauguin's elaborate -- and accountable -- "till." (See Ch. 35, n. 290.) Rewald translates a letter (JLB 736, 1/17/1889) from the following January (1889) as an indictment of Gauguin's extravagant spending: "What is good is that he [Gauguin] knows marvelously how to arrange expenses on a day-by-day basis. Whereas I am often absent-minded, anxious to arrive at a good result, he has much more of a feeling for money and for a daily equilibrium than I have. But his weakness is that he ruins all his calculations by going on bulges [binges?] and indulging in sordid escapades." (Rewald, Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, pp. 222-223; emphasis in original.) While Gauguin may have spent the money that Theo sent him separately in the spasmodic way Vincent describes, we see in this passage a far more sweeping and bitter indictment than the merely financial one Rewald sees. That broader indictment, coming at a time when Vincent was deeply angry over Gauguin's flight from Arles less than a month before (see Chapter 34), is better captured in the Bonger translation: "he has far more money sense for each separate day than I have. But his weakness is that by a sudden freak or animal impulse he upsets everything he has arranged." (BVG 571, 1/17/1889.)

Context:
JBL 695, 10/3/1888: "When we'll talk about those strange days of discussions in the poor studios and the cafés of the Petit Boulevard, and you'll see in full our idea, my brother's and mine, which hasn't in any way been carried out, in terms of forming an association."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "Gauguin is astonishing as a man, he does not let himself get out of hand, and he will wait here very quietly, working hard, for the right moment to take a great step forward."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "But Gauguin is astonishing as a man; he doesn't get worked up, and he'll wait here, very calmly, while at the same time working hard, for the right moment to take a huge step forward."

Context:
JLB 714, 10/27/1888 or 10/28/1888: "I did know that Gauguin had travelled, but I didn't know he was a real seaman; he's been through all the difficulties, he was a real topman on the topmast and a real sailor. That gives me a tremendous respect for him, and an even more absolute confidence in his personality."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: " I do not yet know what Gauguin thinks of my decorations in general, I only know that there are already some studies which he really likes, like the sower, the sunflowers, and the bedroom."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: " I don't yet know what Gauguin thinks about my decoration in general; I only know that there are some studies that he really does like, namely, the Sower, the Sunflowers, the Bedroom."

Context:
JLB 701, 10/10/1888 or 10/11/1888: "But come on, let's see -- is this journey so exhausting, then, when after all the worst consumptives do it??? When he comes he'll be welcome. If he doesn't come, well, then, it's his business. But isn't it clear, or shouldn't it be, that he's coming here precisely in order to get better? And he claims to need to stay over there in order to recover! What stupidities! Honestly. ... Gauguin writes very amiably, but he doesn't actually say why he isn't coming right away. He says 'because he's ill,' but would he come here to recover? It seemed to me, precisely, that that was just what we were looking for."

Context:
BVG 558, 10/28/1888: "Gauguin is astonishing as a man, he does not let himself get out of hand, and he will wait here very quietly, working hard, for the right moment to take a great step forward."
JLB 715, 10/29/1888: "But Gauguin is astonishing as a man; he doesn't get worked up, and he'll wait here, very calmly, while at the same time working hard, for the right moment to take a huge step forward."

Context:
JLB 696, 10/3/1888: "The artistic gentleman who was in your letter, who resembles me -- is that me or somebody else? He certainly looks like me as far as the face is concerned, but in the first place I'm always smoking a pipe, and then, having vertigo, I have an unspeakable horror of sitting like that on sheer crags beside the sea. So if that's meant to be my portrait, I protest against the above-mentioned improbabilities."

Context:
BVG B18, 10/6/1888: "The artistic gentleman in the letter, who looks like me -- is it me or somebody else? -- as far as the face is concerned it would really seem to be me, but in the first place I am always smoking a pipe, and then I have always had an unutterable horror of sitting like that on precipitous cliffs verging on the sea, as I suffer from vertigo. So if that is meant to be my portrait, I protest against the aforementioned improbabilities."
JLB 696, 10/3/1888: "The artistic gentleman who was in your letter, who resembles me -- is that me or somebody else? He certainly looks like me as far as the face is concerned, but in the first place I'm always smoking a pipe, and then, having vertigo, I have an unspeakable horror of sitting like that on sheer crags beside the sea. So if that's meant to be my portrait, I protest against the above-mentioned improbabilities."

Context:
JLB 801, 9/10/1889: "My face has lit up after all a lot since, but it was indeed me, extremely tired and charged with electricity as I was then."

The first of these two comments fits exactly with Gauguin's Yellow House strategy of evasion. Given his symbolist leanings, his comment that Vincent's image "that's the flower" has to be seen as more a condemnation than a compliment. He surely meant the same sly insult that he pictured in the portrait of Vincent painting sunflowers: i.e., that Vincent was too attached to the reality of objects and not sufficiently open to their essences. Equally certainly, Gauguin designed his comment just so that Vincent -- naturalist fool that Gauguin believed him to be -- would take it as a compliment. It says everything about Vincent's mental state in January that he still allows himself to indulge in the delusive naïveté that brought him to edge of self-annihilation only a month earlier. (See Chapter 36.) The second comment reflects Vincent's view of Gauguin's appreciation of the sunflower paintings at the time the letter was written (i.e., early February 1889), not at the time the portrait of Vincent was painted. That comment about "infatuation" was prompted by a campaign Gauguin waged after he left Arles to secure ownership of one of the two sunflower paintings he had brought back from Arles, claiming that Vincent had promised it to him either as part of an exchange or as a gift (JLB 736, 1/17/1889). Vincent did not dispute Gauguin's ownership of one of the two sunflowers, which he considered adequate compensation for a Martinique landscape that Gauguin had left behind in Arles (ibid.).

The second sunflower painting -- "sunflowers with a yellow background," presumably Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (F 454 JH 1562) -- was the subject of contention (JLB 739, 1/21/1889). Vincent not only bitterly rejected the claim of a gift or exchange, he wrote Gauguin directly on the matter, rehearsing the injuries of the previous month and refusing to surrender the second sunflower (JLB 736, 1/17/1889). This counter-campaign involved not only building up the value of the disputed painting ("I don't think that you've made a bad choice -- if [Georges] Jeannin has the peony, [Ernest] Quost the hollyhock, I indeed, before others, have taken the sunflower" [JLB 739, 1/21/1889]), but also, to Theo, inflating Gauguin's opinion of it ("[he] has a complete infatuation with my sunflowers" [JLB 745, 2/3/1889]). Vincent resolved the cognitive dissonance between his pleasure at Gauguin's interest in his painting and his need to make Gauguin pay for his sins, by agreeing to do a copy of the disputed image: "So, he wants one of those two canvases, well I'll do one of them over again, the one he wants" (JLB 741, 1/22/1889). How interested Gauguin actually was in Vincent's sunflowers, even as of January-February 1889, is hard to know, partly because, through his later writings, he engaged in a lifelong campaign to claim credit for Vincent's subsequent success and, especially, the success of his famous flowers. (That he referred once to "my Vincent" tells the whole story [Gauguin, in Stein, pp. 124-125].)

It is possible that (1) Gauguin came to appreciate the images toward the end of his stay in the Yellow House (this is Vincent's version [see Ch. 35, n. 300] and might explain why he took two of them away from Arles); (2) once back in Paris, Gauguin reconsidered his early scorn of the images (see Ch. 35, n. 300); or (3) that he changed his opinion (or was influenced by other opinion) in the first part of 1889, encouraged perhaps by Theo's interest in exhibiting the two sunflower paintings " (JLB 741, 1/22/1889). The fact that he brought the two paintings back from Arles is not dispositive evidence that he admired them. He may have brought them back to complement, explain, or excuse the portrait of Vincent, now titled The Painter of Sunflowers, that he gave to Theo.