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464 To Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, Thursday, 2 October 1884.

metadata
No. 464 (Brieven 1990 467, Complete Letters 378)
From: Vincent van Gogh
To: Theo van Gogh
Date: Nuenen, Thursday, 2 October 1884

Source status
Original manuscript

Location
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. nos. b412 a-c V/1962 (sheets 1, 2, 3) and b413 b V/1962 (sheet 4)

Date
Vincent thanks Theo for his letter and the money and goes at length into what Theo raised about Vincent’s relationship with their parents. This was the ‘registered letter’ that had ‘just’ been received, which Mr van Gogh mentioned to Theo on Thursday, 2 October 1884 (FR b2257). Vincent’s statement that ‘a call came just now’ for their father (ll. 7-8) also points to this. According to this letter from Mr van Gogh, he and his wife had been informed of this call to the village of Baardwijk on 30 September 1884. From the indignant opening ‘Now listen here’ (l. 2), we infer that Vincent wrote the present letter as soon as he received Theo’s missive. We have therefore dated it Thursday, 2 October 1884.

Arrangement
The arrangement of this letter has been changed. We have moved a sheet that was previously regarded as the third sheet of the letter to letter 473 (see Arrangement in the notes to that letter). We have, however, added another sheet to this letter that was previously placed with letter 461 (ll. 197 ff.). The old configuration produced an illogical transition; now the references to Mouret follow on logically from the previous part of the letter, and the ‘yet’ with which the sheet begins (l. 197) introduces the contrast between the opposition Margot Begemann encountered from her family and the goodness that she nevertheless retained. Admittedly this addition is not written on the same paper as the first part of the letter, but then neither was the sheet in the previous arrangement.

Ongoing topic
Margot Begemann is in Utrecht (456)

original text
 1r:1
Waarde Theo,
Dank voor Uw brief, dank voor het ingeslotene.– Hoor nu eens hier.–
Wat ge schrijft is alles heel goed en wel en wat betreft rumoer, ik begin een beetje beter dan vroeger geprepareerd te zijn om het te coupeeren.– Geen vrees dat Pa en Moe zullen weggaan b.v. – Ofschoon zelfs nu net een beroep kwam.1 Pa en Moe zullen hun positie hier, als ze ’t goed aanleggen, integendeel kunnen bevestigen.
Nu zijn er menschen die tot mij zeggen “wat had je je met haar te bemoeien” – dat’s ééne daadzaak. Nu zijn er menschen die tot haar zeggen “wat had je je met hem te bemoeien” – dat’s een tweede daadzaak. Verder, en zij en ik hebben verdriet genoeg en beroerdigheid genoeg – maar spijt – geen van beiden. Ziehier –
ik geloof  bepaald  of  weet  zeker  ze  van  me houdt,
ik geloof
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ik
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haar 
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dat is gemeend geweest – is het ook gek geweest – enz.? misschien wel als ge wilt – maar de wijzen die nooit iets doen dat gek is, zijn ze niet nog gekker in mijn oog dan ik in het hunne.–
Dat’s te zeggen tegen uwe redeneering en andere redeneeringen.
Dit alles zeg ik eenvoudig uitleggenderwijs, niet vijandig of hatelijk.–
 1v:2
Ge zegt ge houdt van Octave Mouret, ge zeidet ge lijkt op hem.– ik heb sedert verl. jaar ook het tweede deel gelezen, waarin hij me veel beter bevalt dan in ’t eerste.–2
Ik hoorde onlangs zeggen dat “au bonheur des dames” niet buitengewoon zou toedoen aan de verdienste van Zola. ik vind er mee van de grootste en beste dingen in. Ik heb ’t er eens op nagekeken en ik schrijf U enkele woorden van Octave Mouret over.–
Gij – in den laatsten tijd van ± 1 1/2 jaar, zijt ge niet aan den Bourdoncle kant gegaan.3 Hadt den Mouret liever doorgevoerd, dat was en blijft mijn opinie.– Behoudens enorm verschil in omstandigheden, ja regtlijnig verschil in omstandigheden, loop ik toch meer in de Mouret rigting dan ge misschien denkt – in zake mijn geloof in de vrouwen en dat men hun noodig heeft, hun lief moet hebben. (Mouret zegt “chez nous on aime la clientèle”).4
Denk hier eens over – en herinner U mijn leedwezen over Uw zeggen dat ge “verkoeld” waart.–5
 1v:3
Al wat ik zei van bittere waarschuwing tegen invloed van ’t Guizot achtige zoo als ik ’t noemde, herzeg ik meer dan ooit. waarom.– dat leidt tot mediocreteit. En ik wil U niet zien onder de mediocreteiten omdat ik te veel van U gehouden heb, ja nog houdt, dan dat ik verdragen kan U te zien verstijven.–
Ik weet ’t is moeielijk, ik weet dat ik van U te weinig afweet, ik weet dat ik misschien me vergis.– Maar enfin – lees dan Uw Mouret eens na.–
Ik sprak van verschil tusschen Mouret en wat ik zou willen, en toch evenwijdigheid. Ziehier. Mouret aanbid de moderne parijsche vrouw – goed.
Maar Millet, Breton, met dezelfde passie de boerin.
Die twee passies zijn een zelfde.
Lees Zola’s beschrijving van een kamer met vrouwen in de schemering – vrouwen dikwijls al over de 30, tot 50 toe – zoo’n somber, mysterieus hoekje.–6
Ik vind dat prachtig, ja subliem.
Maar voor mij is even subliem – de Angelus van Millet,7 ook die schemering, ook die oneindige emotie – of dat enkele figuur van Breton op de Luxembourg8 of zijn Source.9
 1r:4
Ge zult zeggen dat ik niet slaag.– ’t Kan me niet schelen, vaincre of être vaincu,10 in alle geval is men in emotie en beweging en dat is meer ’t zelfde dan wel schijnt en gezegd wordt.–
Wat betreft deze vrouw in kwestie, het blijft mij een mysterie hoe ’t moet afloopen maar noch zij noch ik zullen gekke dingen doen.–
Ik vrees voor haar dat de oude godsdienst haar op nieuw zal verstijven en bevriezen11 met dat verdomde ijskoude dat haar al eens in ver verleden heeft geknakt tot stervens toe, lange jaren geleden. O – ik ben geen vriend van het tegenwoordige kristendom, al was de stichter subliem – het tegenwoordige kristendom, ik heb het te goed in de kaart gekeken.– Het biologeerde me zelf, dat ijskoude in mijn jeugd – maar ik wreek me sedert.– waardoor.– door de liefde die zij – de theologen – zonde noemen, te aanbidden, door een hoer te respecteeren enz. en veel would be eerwaardige, godsdienstige dames niet.
De vrouw is voor de eene partij altijd ketterij en duivelsch.– Voor mij ’t tegenovergestelde. Gegroet.

b. à t.
Vincent

 2r:5
Ziehier uit Octave Mouret –12

Mouret dit: “Si tu te crois fort, parceque tu refuses d’être bête et de souffrir! Eh bien – alors tu n’es qu’une dupe, pas davantage!”–13

“Tu t’amuses?”
Mouret ne parut pas comprendre tout de suite. mais, lorsqu’il se fut rappelé leurs conversations anciennes sur la bêtise vide et l’inutile torture de la vie, il répondit: “Sans doute – jamais je n’ai tant vécu... Ah! mon vieux – ne te moques pas!– ce sont les heures les plus courtes où l’on meurt de souffrance!–

je la veux, je l’aurai!.... et – si elle m’échappe, tu verras les choses que je ferai pour m’en guérir.– Tu n’entends pas cette langue, mon vieux; autrement, tu saurais que l’action contient en elle sa récompense – agir – créer – se battre contre les faits, les vaincre ou être vaincu par eux, toute la joie et toute la santé humaines sont !”
 2v:6
Simple façon de s’étourdir – murmura l’autre.
“Eh bien! j’aime mieux m’étourdir.– Crever pour crever – je préfère crever de passion que de crever d’ennui!”

– dit laatste zeg niet alleen ik  quand  même
maar ook zij van nature
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daarom zag ik iets groots in haar van ’t begin af, en alleen ’t is voor haar verdomd jammer dat zij in haar jeugd zich heeft laten overdonderen door teleurstellingen.
Overdonderen in dezen zin dat de oud godsdienstige familie Begemann het actieve, ja geniale beginsel in haar heeft meenen te moeten onderdrukken en haar passief tot in ’t oneindige heeft gemaakt.
Als in haar jeugd ze haar niet gebroken hadden! of als ze ’t daar bij gelaten hadden en nu niet op nieuw, met 5 of 6 of nog meer vrouwen tegen haar alleen vechtende,
haar radeloos gemaakt hadden!
lees l’evangeliste van Daudet eens over die vrouwenintrigues, die hier anders waren maar toch in zoo’n genre.14
 3r:7
Och Theo, waarom zou ik me veranderen. – vroeger was ik heel passief en heel zacht en stil – nu niet meer maar ik ben nu ook geen kind meer – ik voel soms me zelf.–
Neem Mauve – waarom is hij driftig en lang niet altijd tam. ik ben nog zoo ver niet als hij maar ik zal ook nog verder komen dan ik ben.– Ik zeg U, men moet als men actief wil wezen niet bang zijn om eens iets verkeerd te doen, niet bang zijn om in eenige fouten te vervallen. Om goed te worden denken velen dat ze er komen zullen door geen kwaad te doen – en dat’s een leugen en zeidet ge zelf vroeger een leugen was.– Dat leidt tot stagnatie, tot mediocreteit. Smeer maar er iets op als ge een blank doek U aan ziet staren met een zekere imbeciliteit.–
Gij weet niet hoe verlammend dat is, dat staren van een blank doek dat tot den schilder zegt gij kunt niets. het doek heeft een idioot staren en biologeert sommige schilders zoo dat ze zelf idioot worden.
 3v:8
Veel schilders zijn bang voor het blanke doek maar het blanke doek is bang voor den waren hartstogtelijken schilder die durft – en die eenmaal door die biologie van “ge kunt niet” doorgebroken is.–
Het leven op zich zelf keert aan een mensch altijd ook een oneindig niets zeggende, ontmoedigenden, hopeloos makenden blanken kant toe waar niets op staat, evenmin als op een blank schilderdoek.–
Maar hoe nietszeggend en ijdel, hoe dood het leven zich voor doe, de man van geloof, van energie, van warmte, en die iets weet, laat zich niet daardoor met een kluitje in ’t riet sturen. Hij grijpt er in en doet iets en knoopt daar aan vast, enfin breekt, “schendt” – zeggen ze.–
laat ze praten die koude theologen.
Theo ik heb zoo verdomd deernis met deze vrouw, juist omdat haar leeftijd en juist misschien eene kwaal in de lever en gal haar zoo fataal boven ’t hoofd hangen.– En dit verergerd is door de emoties. Toch zullen we nog zien wat kan of wat fataal niet moge kunnen, ik doe echter niets zonder een zeer goeden dokter, dus ik zal haar geen kwaad doen.–

 4r:9
Toch nu juist in deze dagen gebeurde het me evenwel dat me gevraagd werd om voor f. 20 een teekening of geschilderde schets te maken. Waar ik ook aan gevolg gegeven heb, doch daar ik veronderstelde en bij onderzoek die veronderstelling ook uitkwam dat Margo Begemann hier achter zat en ’t geld indirect me zou gegeven hebben, weigerde ik meest beslist de betaling doch niet de teekening, die ik gestuurd heb.15 Het is echter niet makkelijk om als men bar om geld verlegen is, het te weigeren.– Doch het ware een ezelsbruggetje geweest – dus – –
In plaats van ezelsbruggetjes – is er iets beters te doen? ik geloof het zeer zeker. ik wou voor U en voor me zelf en voor veel anderen dat we Mourets in den kunsthandel kregen die een uitgebreider, nieuw publiek dat kocht wisten te créeeren.
Ge zult zeggen, is b.v. Tersteeg geen Mouret. misschien is hij het après tout.
Maar wat daar ook van zij, er blijven nog nieuwe carrieres te maken, juist om reden dat het publiek dat schilderijen koopt nog kan vertiendubbeld worden en dit met den dag noodiger wordt.
 4v:10
Indien er eenige Mourets opstonden die anders kochten en verkochten dan volgens de oude sleur, best, dan komt er meer en meer werk aan den winkel.
Doch indien er geen Mourets komen – dan – zou de handel zich welligt gansch veranderen doordat de schilders zelf het vernieuwden en zelf zonder het oude intermediair permanente exposities begonnen. Ik wou gij wist en voeldet hoe jong ge nog zijt als ge U maar jong houdt en durft.
Als ge geen artist zijt in schilderen, wordt artist als handelaar, juist als Mouret.
Ik voor mij – in dagen als deze, als ik on ne peut plus vast zat – ik voel toch dat ik over een paar jaar nog met pleizier heel wat grootere verf- en andere rekeningen aandurf.– Ik wil druk werk hebben – geloof me – ik ben niet van plan me te vervelen – heel veel doen of creveeren.–16

translation
 1r:1
My dear Theo,
Thanks for your letter, thanks for the enclosure. Now listen here.
What you write is all very well and good, and as far as fuss is concerned I’m beginning to be a bit better prepared to forestall it than before. No fear that Pa and Ma will leave, for instance. Although a call came just now.1 On the contrary, if they set about it the right way, Pa and Ma will be able to consolidate their position here.
Now there are people who say to me, ‘what were you doing getting involved with her?’ — that’s one fact. Now there are people who say to her, ‘what were you doing getting involved with him?’ — that’s a second fact. Apart from that, both she and I have sorrow enough and trouble enough — but regret — neither of us. Look here —
certainly  believe  or  know  for  sure  that  she  loves  me,
I
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believe
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I
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her
that has been sincere — has it also been crazy — etc.? Perhaps it has, if you like, but the wise people who never do anything that’s crazy, aren’t they even crazier in my eyes than I in theirs?
That can be said against your argument and other arguments.
I say all this simply by way of explanation, not hostilely or nastily.  1v:2
You say you like Octave Mouret, you said you’re like him. Since last year I’ve also read the second volume, in which he pleases me much more than in the first.2
I recently heard it said that ‘Au bonheur des dames’ wouldn’t add particularly to Zola’s reputation. I find some of the greatest and best things in it. I’ve just looked it up, and I’m copying out a few of Octave Mouret’s words for you.
You — haven’t you gone to the Bourdoncle side over the last 1 1/2 years or so?3 Would have done better to stick with Mouret; that was and still is my opinion. Aside from an enormous difference in circumstances, indeed diametrically opposed circumstances, I tend more towards the Mouret direction than you might think — as regards my belief in women and that one needs them, must love them. (Mouret says, ‘in our establishment, we love the customers’.)4
Think about this — and remember my sorrow about your saying that you had ‘cooled’.5  1v:3
I repeat more forcefully than ever everything I said by way of bitter warning against the influence of Guizot-ness, as I called it. Why? It leads to mediocrity. And I don’t want to see you among the mediocrities because I have loved you, indeed still love you, too much to be able to bear seeing you numbed.
I know it’s difficult, I know that I don’t know enough about you, I know that I may perhaps be mistaken. But anyway — just read your Mouret again.
I mentioned a difference between Mouret and what I should want, and yet the parallels. Look here. Mouret worships the modern Parisian woman — very well.
But Millet, Breton, worship the peasant woman with the same passion.
These two passions are one and the same.
Read Zola’s description of women in a room at dusk — women often already past 30, up to 50 — such a sombre, mysterious little corner.6
I find it magnificent, indeed sublime.
But equally sublime to my mind is — Millet’s Angelus,7 that same dusk, that same infinite emotion — or that solitary figure by Breton in the Luxembourg,8 or his Spring.9  1r:4
You’ll say that I’m not successful. I don’t care, vanquish or be vanquished,10 in all events one has emotion and motion, and they’re more similar than they appear and are said to be.
As regards this woman in question, how it must end remains a mystery to me, but neither she nor I will do anything crazy.
I fear for her that the old religion will numb and freeze her again11 with that damned icy coldness that has already shattered her once in the distant past to the point of death, long years ago. Oh — I’m no friend of present-day Christianity, even though the founder was sublime — I’ve seen through present-day Christianity only too well. It mesmerized me, that icy coldness in my youth — but I’ve had my revenge since then. How? By worshipping the love that they — the theologians — call sin, by respecting a whore etc., and not many would-be respectable, religious ladies.
To the one party, woman is always heresy and diabolical. To me, the opposite. Regards.

Yours truly,
Vincent

 2r:5
Look at this from Octave Mouret12

Mouret says: ‘If you believe yourself strong, because you refuse to be foolish and to suffer! Ah, well — then you are nothing but a dupe, no more!’13

‘Are you enjoying yourself?’
Mouret seemed not to understand immediately. But, when he recalled their old conversations about empty foolishness and the pointless torment of life, he replied:
‘No doubt — never have I lived so much... Ah! old chap — don’t mock! Those are the shortest hours in which one dies of suffering!

I want her, I’ll have her!.... and — if she escapes me you’ll see the things that I’ll do to cure myself of it. You don’t understand this language, old chap; otherwise, you’d know that action contains its reward within itself — to act — to create — to struggle against facts, vanquish them or be vanquished by them, all human joy and health are there!’  2v:6
Just a way of deadening oneself — the other muttered.
‘Ah, well! I prefer to deaden myself. To die for the sake of dying — i prefer to die of passion than to die of boredom!

it isn’t only I who say this last,  after  all,
but she too, instinctively
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that’s why I saw something grand in her from the outset, and it’s just a damned shame for her that when she was young she allowed herself to be overwhelmed by disappointments.
Overwhelmed in the sense that the Begemann family of the old religion believed it had to suppress the active, indeed brilliant principle in her, and made her passive for ever and ever.
If only they hadn’t broken her when she was young! Or if they’d left it at that and not driven her to distraction again!, this time with 5 or 6 or even more women fighting against her alone.
Do read L’evangeliste by Daudet about these female intrigues, which were different here but still of the same kind.14  3r:7
Oh Theo, why should I change? In the past I was very passive and very gentle and quiet — not any more, but I’m not a child any more either — sometimes I feel myself.
Take Mauve — why is he irascible and by no means always mild? I’m not yet as far as he is, but still I’ll get further than I am. I tell you, if one wants to be active, one mustn’t be afraid to do something wrong sometimes, not afraid to lapse into some mistakes. To be good — many people think that they’ll achieve it by doing no harm — and that’s a lie, and you said yourself in the past that it was a lie. That leads to stagnation, to mediocrity. Just slap something on it when you see a blank canvas staring at you with a sort of imbecility.
You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything. The canvas has an idiotic stare, and mesmerizes some painters so that they turn into idiots themselves.  3v:8
Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the truly passionate painter who dares — and who has once broken the spell of ‘you can’t’.
Life itself likewise always turns towards one an infinitely meaningless, discouraging, dispiriting blank side on which there is nothing, any more than on a blank canvas.
But however meaningless and vain, however dead life appears, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, and who knows something, doesn’t let himself be fobbed off like that. He steps in and does something, and hangs on to that, in short, breaks, ‘violates’ — they say.
Let them talk, those cold theologians.
Theo, I feel such damned pity for this woman, precisely because her age and just possibly a liver and gall bladder disorder are hanging so fatally over her head. And this is made worse by the emotions. Still, we’ll see what can be done or what’s made impossible by fate. I’ll do nothing, though, without a very good doctor, so I shan’t do her any harm.

 4r:9
Yet it was at precisely this time that it happened that I was asked to make a drawing or painted sketch for 20 guilders. Which I duly acceded to, but because I suspected, and on investigation found my suspicion was correct, that Margot Begemann was behind it and would have given me the money indirectly, I most decidedly refused the payment but not the drawing, which I sent.15 It’s not easy to refuse it, though, when one is sorely in need of money. But it would have been a bridge of asses — so —
Instead of bridges of asses — is there something better to do? I very definitely believe so. For your sake and mine and for many others, I wish that we could get Mourets in the art trade who knew how to create a broader, new buying public.
You’ll say, isn’t Tersteeg, for instance, a Mouret. Perhaps he is, after all.
But be that as it may, there are still new careers to be made, simply because the public that buys paintings could be multiplied tenfold, and this is becoming more necessary by the day.  4v:10
Were a few Mourets to emerge, who bought and sold other than according to the old routine, good, then there would be more and more work to be done.
But if no Mourets come — then — perhaps the trade should change utterly because the painters themselves revived it and started their own permanent exhibitions without the old intermediary. I wish you knew and felt how young you still are if you would only act young and be daring.
If you aren’t an artist in painting, be an artist as a dealer, just like Mouret.
For my part — at times like these, when I get completely stuck — I still feel that in a few years’ time I’ll happily dare take on a great many larger bills for paint and other things. I want to have a lot of work — believe me — I have no intention of being bored — do a great deal or die.16
notes
1. On 2 October 1884 Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo at length about what had been going on. His account contains some interesting information: ‘We have had difficult days with Vincent again. Apparently he wanted to arrange a marriage with Margot, who proved not entirely averse, but it came up against insuperable objections, on the part of her family too. After news of the business started to leak out, Margot went to Utrecht, where she still is.
It’s said that the relationship has been broken off, but the friendship will continue. They still correspond constantly. The Dr she’s staying with also appears to have told V. that there are physical obstacles that make the affair impossible. At first V. seemed to be taking it calmly and I therefore ventured to be away from home for some days, while Wil was home. But this calm gave way to aggression and Wil was very worried by the feeling that he sometimes seemed to have been drinking.
She found drink in a field flask of his and this agitated her greatly and she wrote to Anna about it so that she could tell you. Still it turned out on investigation that it was more appearances than fact. But it gave Ma and me a reason to talk to him about it. You know that there’s really no talking to him because of the unpleasant tone he adopts. That was the case this time, too, but in the main that last objection was not, in our view, so serious.
Apparently he gives his models a drink when he’s out in the fields with them, and he said himself that he therefore occasionally has one too. That could be the case. According to what V. says, he sometimes takes a drink in the evening on the Dr’s advice because he has such sleepless nights. That remedy seems very unsuitable to us.
But the business with Margot continues to occupy him very much and he is rather depressed at the moment. We are doing our best to restore him to calm, which is the most important thing. But his outlook on life and his ways are so different from ours, that it’s questionable whether living together in the same place can continue in the long run. However we don’t want a real separation and are willing to tolerate and attempt everything to the utmost, if only he could become a bit normal. We do expect something to come of that in time.
There is also a plan that Van Rappard should come to see him and stay with us. We have even urged this; it could provide him with a distraction.
V. just received your registered letter. He told us that you advised him to do everything he could not to make our staying here impossible. We are hoping for the best.
Meanwhile he has noticed that we could leave here if we want to; the day before yesterday I received a call to go to Baardwijk, a village in the Langstraat, close to Waalwijk ... We have so much that is good here that it would be difficult for us to leave. Only if our relations with people were to become difficult because of circumstances, then it could come to it. There’s risk enough of that at the moment’ (FR b2257).
Mr van Gogh intended to discuss this call to the village of Baardwijk (North Brabant), on Tuesday, 8 October.
2. Octave Mouret is a character in Zola’s novels Pot-bouille (1882) and Au bonheur des dames (1883), which Van Gogh described as ‘the second volume’ (cf. letters 283 ff.). Van Gogh repeatedly refers to this owner of the department store ‘Au bonheur des dames’. Mouret is ambitious and competitive, and forces the small draper’s shops in his neighbourhood out of business so that he can build a large department store. Van Gogh values his modern and single-minded approach, which responds to the demand and focuses on expanding the clientele.
3. Bourdoncle is one of the managers in the department store ‘Au bonheur des dames’; he has a narrow, mediocre mind. When there is a temporary minor downturn, he fires staff for the smallest thing.
4. This passage was added later; the italics and emphasis are not in Zola. Unlike Bourdoncle, Mouret has a sensual nature and seeks as far as possible to meet the needs of Parisian women in the stock he sells in the store. At the end of Au bonheur des dames he marries one of his former shop assistants, Denise. Bourdoncle represents the businesslike, impersonal side, whereas Mouret is much more likely to be led by what his heart tells him. See for the quotation (originally with ‘les clientes’ rather than ‘la clientèle’): Zola 1960-1967, vol. 3, chapter 11, p. 699.
5. This term ‘cooled’ does not occur in the letters; Theo probably said it during his visit to Nuenen in August.
6. Van Gogh is referring to the description of a gathering in the salon of Octave Mouret’s mistress Henriette Desforges (Au bonheur des dames, chapter 3). Cf. Sund 1992, p. 278 (n. 20).
7. See for Millet’s The angelus : letter 17, n. 3.
8. See for Jules Breton, Evening : letter 34, n. 11; and cf. Sund 1992 p. 278 (n. 19).
9. Jules Breton, La source (The spring) (present whereabouts unknown). Known as a photograph in the series ‘Musée Goupil’, no. 1000 (Paris, BNF, Cabinet des Estampes). Ill. 30 .
10. Taken from the quotation from Zola written out later in the letter. See l. 121.
11. It had previously been suggested that Margot might suffer from religious mania (letter 457). Margot’s involvement with the church must have been very considerable: she left the churchwardens 750 guilders so that the interest on it could be used to supplement the minister’s stipend. See Tralbaut 1974, p. 82.
12. The passages Van Gogh quotes are taken from a conversation between Octave Mouret and Paul de Vallagnosc in Au bonheur des dames. See Zola 1960-1967, vol. 3, chapter 11, pp. 696-699.
13. Van Gogh had already alluded to these sentences at the end of letter 458.
14. In Alphonse Daudet, L’évangéliste – Roman parisien (1883) the simple crochet worker Mme Ebsen seeks help from the Protestant community after her mother’s death. She is given moral and financial support by Mme d’Autheman who, however, holds extreme religious convictions. She abuses her position and embroils Eline, Mme Ebsen’s daughter, in her fanaticism. Through hypocrisy and deceit, Mme d’Autheman succeeds in taking Eline away from her mother.
15. Instead of ‘which I sent’, Van Gogh originally said: ‘which appeared to be satisfactory’ (die naar genoegen scheen te wezen). Drawings known to have once belonged to Margot Begemann are the watercolours Scheveningen woman sewing (F 869 / JH 83 ) and Bleaching ground (F 946r / JH 158 ) with Scheveningen woman (F 946v / JH 95 ) on the verso. However, these are drawings that Van Gogh made in The Hague.
16. A reference back to the quotation from Zola (ll. 125-127).