Letter T18 Paris, 4 October 1889
My dear Vincent,
I have really waited too long to tell you that your last consignment arrived in good order. I like the wheat field and the mountains enormously; they are very beautiful in design. In the wheat field there is that unshakable something which nature has, even in her fiercest aspects. The orchard too is extremely fine. Isaäcson, who has been writing for a Dutch paper recently, wants to write something about your work. He asked me to let him have certain pictures to keep at his home for a while, including the mountains and the wheat field.
As soon as I send you the reproductions of the Millets, I shall include articles by Isaäcson; I don’t particularly like his search for new works, but as a matter of fact he says good things, which the majority of the art critics do not.
Your letter gave me a good deal of pleasure, and I thank you very much for it. I can well understand that in moments of great excitement the attendance of the good sisters hardly has a tranquilizing influence upon you. Dr. Peyron came to see me, and he seems to be well disposed toward you. I like his face very much. He says that for the present you are absolutely healthy, and if it weren’t for the fact that it is such a short time since you had that crisis, he would already have encouraged you to leave the establishment more often. He told me that, seeing that your trip to Arles provoked a crisis, it is necessary to ascertain before you go to live elsewhere, whether you can bear a change. If you can stand these tests, he sees no objection to your leaving them.
Moreover, I spoke to Pissarro, and discussed the question. I do not think he has any great authority in his own home,
where his wife wears the pants. After a few days he told me that it was not possible in his own house, but that he knows somebody at Auvers 1 who is a doctor and does painting in his spare moments. He tells me the gentleman in question has been in contact with all the impressionists. He thinks that you might possibly stay with him. He has to look him up, and will speak about the matter. If you could find something in that neighbourhood, it would be a very good thing for you, for I think Brittany also has something of the character of a cloister, which is even to be felt in the last Gauguins, I believe. Bernard is coming tomorrow to look at your pictures, and I shall go to his house to see what he has brought with him.
I feel glad in general that you are doing better now. If your change of residence should take you first to Paris, it would give me a great deal of pleasure.
We have good things from Wil and Mother; Jo too is well, and gives you her kind regards.
A cordial handshake.
Yours, Theo 1. See Vincent’s letter 609.