Vincent part seven

Being the latter part of 1883 - Vincent has left his woman, since she could not learn to be good. He is gone from the Hague and moving to Hoogeveen (Drenthe) to devote himself once more to painting. His melancholy is more pronounced. He grieves over leaving the woman and her children, but sees it as necessary.

Here, he gives voice to a familiar sentiment:

One might almost weep over what is now spoiled on every side; what our predecessors gave their honest labour to is now neglected and abandoned in a cowardly way. The time we live in is perhaps outwardly a little more respectable than the one that is past, but the nobleness is disappearing too fast, so that one no longer expects from the future the same great things which they did in the past. - Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Drenthe, c. 22 September 1883

Ha! If he feels the loss of nobleness then, he would be appalled at some aspects of modern life...though I have to believe that nobleness exists, even if we no longer call it that...is greatness of spirit still possible in such a very small world?

In every life some rain must fall

And days be dark and dreary.

It is true and it cannot be otherwise, but the question is, isn't the number of dark and dreary days sometimes too great? - Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Drenthe, c. 26 September 1883

Ouch. Just ouch. I feel both of these

But a human being has his roots, transplanting him is a painful thing, though the soil may be better in the place where he is transplanted. - Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Drenthe, 13 October 1883

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/13/335.htm









http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/12/318.htm