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Vincent van Gogh - Blossoming Almond Tree 1890

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The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Theo van Gogh to Vincent van Gogh. Paris, Friday, 4 October 1889.
My dear Vincent,
I’ve delayed too long in writing to you to tell you that your last consignment arrived in good order. I very much like the wheatfield and the mountains, which are drawn with great expression. There is in the wheatfield that unshakeable side that nature has, even in its wildest aspects. The orchard is very beautiful too. Isaäcson, who has lately been writing in a Dutch newspaper, would like to write about your works. He’s asked me if he may have certain things at his home, among others the mountains and the wheatfield. When I send you the reproductions of Millet I’ll enclose Isaäcson’s articles, I don’t like his researches into new words, but basically he talks of good things, which the majority of art critics do not. Your letter gives me much pleasure, and I thank you very much for it. I can certainly feel that being surrounded by the nuns in moments of great agitation must not have a calming effect on you.

Dr Peyron came to see me, and he seems well disposed towards you. I like his physiognomy very much. Here’s what he told me. He doesn’t consider you mad at all, and says that the crises you have are of an epileptic nature. For the moment he says that you’re absolutely healthy, and if it weren’t such a short time since you’d had a crisis he would already have encouraged you to go outside the establishment more often. He tells me that as your trip to Arles brought on a crisis one would have to see if you can now bear a change before changing residence. If you bear these ordeals well, he sees nothing against your leaving him.
Now I’ve seen Pissarro and I’ve talked to him about the matter. I think that he doesn’t have much to say at home, where his wife wears the trousers. After a few days he told me that it wasn’t possible at his home, but that he knows someone in Auvers, who’s a doctor and does painting in his free moments. He tells me that he’s a man who has been in touch with all the Impressionists. He thinks that you could probably stay at his home. He’ll go and see him and speak to him about the matter. If you could find something around there, that would be a good thing, for I think that Brittany also has this cloister-like quality, and one feels that a lot even in the latest Gauguins, I find. Tomorrow Bernard is to come and see your paintings, and I’ll go to his home to see what he’s brought back.
All in all I’m happy that you’re better, if your change of residence brought you first to Paris, that would give me great pleasure.
We have good news of Mother and of Wil. Jo is well too, and sends warm regards. Good handshake.
Theo