1881-11 · Etten · Knot of Silence

The Michelet Moment in Etten

He borrowed Michelet’s sentences to find words for his heartbreak and his longing for a family.

No painting at this knot — only a letter.

Letter

In the summer of 1881 he proposed to his cousin Kee Vos and was refused. From November on, his letters to Theo returned to it again and again, and kept quoting Michelet. Just as this love was taking root, he wrote, he had reread L’amour and La femme, and many things that would otherwise have been a mystery became clear; and he urged Theo: “Read in any case L’amour and La femme.”
In late November he went to Amsterdam to find Kee and did not see her. Half a year later he recalled being told: “Your ‘she and no other’ is opposed by her ‘certainly not him’.” He put his fingers in the flame of the lamp and asked to see her for as long as he held his hand in the flame. As he remembered it, they blew the lamp out.

The Ferocious Reader

In this stretch of letters, Michelet’s L’amour and La femme keep supplying words: “she and no other”, “love on”, “a woman must breathe upon you”. He was not merely reading; he was using Michelet’s framework to think through his heartbreak, his understanding of women and his longing for a family. He also turned Michelet against practical objections: to those who feared that a household cost too much, he answered that a married artist and his wife spend less than a bachelor and his mistress — an echo of Michelet’s “two people spend less than one” in L’amour. The ferocious reader does not just read a great deal; he turns what he reads into his own skeleton.

Synaesthetic Precision

Kee’s answer is compressed in his letters into three words: “no, nay, never”. They return again and again in the November letters; once he even joked that he hoped this mill of no, nay, never would go bankrupt. An emotion made into a verbal object that can be picked up, weighed and mocked — synaesthetic precision at work, early, in the language of feeling.

The Translator

In a letter of about 8 November, at the point where Michelet enters, he slips from Dutch into French and keeps writing in French for several short paragraphs: “Elle a soufflé sur moi, mon cher!” — she has breathed upon me, my dear chap! How so? Because three times she has answered “never”. At the close of the French passage he bends St Paul’s “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” into “No! where is thy sting? Never, where is thy victory!”, and only then returns to Dutch: “Behold, therefore, a love story for you, man of business!” The book he was reading, a biblical cadence and his own situation are carried, across these paragraphs, into another language.

Events

1881 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 179
In the summer of 1881, while his cousin Kee Vos was staying in Etten, he proposed to her and was refused. Only on 3 November did he tell Theo, rendering her answer as ‘no, nay, never’.
1881-11-07 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 180
He told Theo that the only song he wanted to sing was ‘aimer encore’ (love on), and asked whether anyone who had not yet learned to say ‘she and no other’ knew what love was. Both phrases came from his reading of Michelet.
c. 1881-11-08 The Translator · Letter 181
Borrowing Michelet’s words — a woman must breathe upon you if you are to be a man — he wrote that Kee’s three answers of ‘never’ were just such a breath.
1881-11-18 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 186
He wrote to Theo that when their father saw him with a French book by Michelet or Hugo, he thought of arsonists and murderers; yet it was while this love was taking root that he had reread L’amour and La femme, and he told his father plainly that here he valued Michelet’s advice above his.
1881-11-19 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 187
He named Michelet alongside Beecher Stowe, Carlyle and George Eliot as people ‘at the forefront of modern civilization’, who call on us to ‘concentrate on one occupation and love one woman’, and urged Theo to read Jane Eyre and Shirley.
1881-11-23 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 189
He urged Theo to reread Michelet, saying it would do him more good than the Bible; for his own part, he would not do without Michelet for anything in the world.
c. 1881-11-24 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 193
He went to Kee’s parents’ house in Amsterdam, thinking that in such mild weather the ‘no, nay, never’ might be thawing. The family was at table — everyone but Kee — and there was not a plate too many.
c. 1881-12-23 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 193
He wrote that he had recently been reading Michelet on women, religion and the priest, and asked: ‘Can professors fall in love? Do clergymen know what love is?’ The letter was written a few days before Christmas.
1881-12-25 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 194
At Christmas, after a violent argument with his father that began with his refusal to go to church, his father said it would be better if he left home; he left the same day for The Hague.

From the Letters

En tot heden heb ik geen berouw van die opvatting hoewel ik nog altijd sta voor dat nooit neen nimmer.

And until now I haven’t regretted that decision, even though I’m still confronted with that no, nay, never.

Letter 179

Wie nog niet geleerd heeft te zeggen “zij en geen ander”/ weet die wat liefde is?

He who hasn’t yet learned to say ‘she and no other’, does he know what love is?

Letter 180

Niet ik doch Vader Michelet zegt tot alle jonge mannen als gij en ik “il faut qu’une femme souffle sur toi pour que tu sois homme”.

Not I but père Michelet says to all young men like you and me, ‘a woman must breathe upon you if you’re to be a man’.

Letter 181

Ik las juist nu terwijl deze liefde zich wortelde in mijn hart het boek van Michelet/ L’amour en La femme/ op nieuw en zooveel dingen werden mij duidelijk die mij anders raadsels zouden zijn.

Just now, when this love was taking root in my heart, I read Michelet’s books L’amour and La femme again, and so many things became clear to me that would otherwise remain a mystery.

Letter 186

En mij aangaande/ ik zou voor niets ter wereld Michelet willen missen.

And as far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t do without Michelet for anything in the world.

Letter 189

Tegenover Uw “zij en geen ander” staat haar “hij zeker niet”

Your ‘she and no other’ is opposed by her ‘certainly not him’

Letter 228

Letter Sources

Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org

The Michelet Moment in Etten

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From the Letters

Letter Sources