[Letterhead: Goupil and Boussod Paris]

23 Oct. 1888

My dear Vincent,

It pains me to learn that you’re not well. You must have worked too much and that way forgotten to take care of your body as one should. I’m glad that your letter1 came today and no later, because I would soon have left for Brussels,2 and you’d have had to wait another two days, at least. What a financier  1r:2 you are! What distresses me is that even so, you’re still in poverty, because you can’t stop yourself doing things for others. I’d be very glad to see you more selfish until you’re on an even keel. You understand that père Thomas has sent me packing; it should have been you — who took the initiative, and even then. Now let’s try to get ourselves out of it anyway; others will come looking for us of their own accord. What will please you is that I’ve sold Gauguin’s large painting, the Breton women,3 which had been deposited with Diot.4 I’m sending him 500 francs for it and so he’ll be solvent for the moment, but will he come to join you? This  1v:3 week De Haan is coming to live with me, which I’m delighted about, because it’s likely that some time from now it will be he who will form the nucleus of the group of young people here.5 In your previous letter you seem to believe that these people have the edge in questions of art in the manner of the Dutch,6 but it’s my fault if you had this impression. When I told you that they knew how to analyze a painting by taking account of the sentiment, technique, etc., I didn’t want to go so far as to say that they separate these qualities, but rather I wanted to tell you the unusual clarity of mind that they have in not confusing things. Isaäcson, especially, strikes me as a real scholar. They’ve received paintings and studies made in Holland; very good, but a bit dark. They  1v:4 intend to stay in Paris for the winter and to leave for the country as soon as the weather’s good enough for working outside.

Yours,

Theo