Vincent van Gogh - Flower Beds in Holland 1883

Bulb Fields
Flower Beds in Holland
Oil on canvas on panel 48.0 x 65.0 cm. The Hague: April, 1883
Washington: National Gallery of Art

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The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

To Caroline van Stockum-Haanebeek. London, Monday, 9 February 1874.
My dear Caroline,
I feel the need to write a few words to you.
What happy days those were ‘when we were together’. You must know that I haven’t forgotten you, but writing doesn’t come to me as easily as I’d like. I have a rich life here, ‘having nothing, yet possessing all things’. Sometimes I start to believe that I’m gradually beginning to turn into a true cosmopolitan, meaning not a Dutchman, Englishman or Frenchman, but simply a man.
With the world as my mother country, meaning that tiny spot in the world where we’re set down. But we aren’t there yet, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend. And as our ideal that which Mauve calls ‘that’s it’. Old girl, adieu.
Yours truly,
Vincent
A handshake for you and Willem, like old times, so that it hurts your fingers.