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Sheet 1 of a letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh (recto)
Vincent van Gogh

Object number
b0153aV1962r
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Dimensions
21.2 cm x 27.1 cm
Edition 2009

Letter number: 155

Read the full letter on vangoghletters.org

Popular quotes in this letter

Letter #155 To Theo van Gogh
Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way. So now what are we to do, keep this fire alive inside, have salt in ourselves, wait patiently
Andreea , Bucharest Angry
Letter #155 To Theo van Gogh
So instead of succumbing to homesickness, I said to myself, one’s country or native land is everywhere. So instead of giving way to despair, I took the way of active melancholy as long as I had strength for activity, or in other words, I preferred the melancholy that hopes and aspires and searches to the one that despairs, mournful and stagnant.
Elena , India Loving
Letter #155 To Theo van Gogh
And then the cage stays there and the bird is mad with suffering. ‘Look, there’s an idler’, says another passing bird – that fellow’s a sort of man of leisure. And yet the prisoner lives and doesn’t die; nothing of what’s going on within shows outside, he’s in good health, he’s rather cheerful in the sunshine. But then comes the season of migration. A bout of melancholy – but, say the children who look after him, he’s got everything that he needs in his cage, after all – but he looks at the sky outside, heavy with storm clouds, and within himself feels a rebellion against fate. I’m in a cage, I’m in a cage, and so I lack for nothing, you fools! Me, I have everything I need! Ah, for pity’s sake, freedom, to be a bird like other birds!
Jackie. , Fl. Sad