Letter 134 Cuesmes, 20 August 1880
Dear Theo,
If I am not mistaken, you must still have “Les Travaux des Champs�by Millet. Would you be so kind as to lend them to me for a short time, and send them by mail?
I must tell you that I am busy sketching large drawings after Millet, and that I have already finished “The Four Hours of the Day “as well as “The Sower.�Well, perhaps if you saw them, you would not be altogether dissatisfied. Now if you send me “Les Travaux des Champs,�you might perhaps add some other prints by, or after, Millet, Breton, Feyen-Perrin, etc. Do not buy them for this purpose, but lend me what you have.
Send me what you can, and do not fear for me. If I can only continue to work, somehow or other it will se me right again. Your doing this will help me a great deal. If you should take a trip to Holland, I hope you will not pass by here without coming to see the sketches.
I write to you while I am busy drawing, and I am in a hurry to go back to it, so good night, and send me the prints as soon as possible, and believe me,
Ever yours, Vincent
C/o Charles Decrucq,
Rue du Pavillon 3, Cuesmes.
The Millets which I copied are, “The Four Hours of the Day,�the size is almost that of a page from the Cours de Dessin Bargue. You will understand well enough what I want without my telling you, but I’ll tell you anyway, so you’ll know what I really think. It is especially studies of the figure like “The Diggers�by Millet, or the lithograph after his “Le Vanneur�[The Winnower] and figures by Brion, Frère, or Feyen- Perrin, or Jules Breton. I think that you might perhaps find just what I want at the Alliance des Arts, where they sell lithographs of contemporary artists cheaply. One print which I should like to have immensely is the large etching by Daubigny after Ruysdael, “Le Buisson�[The Copse], which is sold at the chalcographic cabinet of the Louvre.
I have sketched a drawing representing miners, men and women, going to the shaft in the morning through the snow, by a path along a thorn hedge: passing shadows, dimly visible in the twilight. In the background the large mine buildings and the heaps of clinkers stand out vaguely against the sky. I am sending you a hasty sketch so you can see what it is like. But I feel the need to study the drawing of the figure from masters like Millet, Breton, Brion, or Boughton, or others. What do you think of the sketch �do you think the idea good?
Among Bingham’s photographs of pictures by J. Breton, if I remember correctly, there is one representing gleaners: dark silhouettes against a red sky at sunset. Well, these are the things I want to study. It is because I think you would rather see me doing some good work than nothing that I write to you on this subject, and perhaps it might be a reason for restoring the entente cordiale and the sympathy between us, and make us of some use to one another.
I should like very much to do that drawing over again, better than it is now. In the one I have done already,
such as it is, the figures could be 10 cm. high. The pendant represents the return of the miners, but it did not turn out so well; it is very difficult, being an effect of brown silhouettes, just touched by light, against a mottled sky at sunset.
Send me “Les Travaux des Champs�by return mail if you can and will. I wrote a note to Mr. Tersteeg to ask him if perhaps there was a chance of my having for a time the Exercices au Fusain, by Bargue �that is,
the studies from the nude, which you know. I do not know whether he will send them or not, but in case he should not be willing to, could you put in a word for me? For those Exercices au Fusain would be of immense service to me. But perhaps he will do me the favour of sending at least a few sheets, if not the whole course.