1883-07 · The Hague · Knot of Motif

The Carlyle Moment in The Hague

He read Carlyle and called Sartor resartus ‘beautiful — and honest — and humane’; in a letter about his own work that year, he also quoted Carlyle’s ‘the result of an idea must be an action’.

F1034 Four Potato Diggers 1883

Painting

F1034 shows four potato diggers, their tools and bent bodies forming a row across the field. On 22 June 1883 he wrote that he had made four large studies of the potato harvest: at that season the potatoes were lifted with a short-handled fork, the worker on his knees, and he imagined something good could be made of these kneeling figures on a flat field in the evening. On 22 July he sent Theo photographs of recent drawings and listed Sower, Potato Grubbers and Peat Diggers in his letter.

Letter

In March 1883 he told Rappard he was reading Carlyle’s Sartor resartus, in which ‘old clothes’ stand for all manner of forms and, in religion, all dogmas — ‘beautiful — and honest — and humane’. On 22 June he quoted Carlyle to Theo: the result of an idea must not be a feeling but an action; he also cited the ‘Worship of sorrow’, which he found in Degroux and Daumier. On 2 July he wrote that Legros’s etching Carlyle in his Study often came to mind when he tried to imagine Millet, or anyone, as he really was.

Place

The Hague. That year he and Rappard wrote to each other often, sending books and magazines back and forth. He asked Rappard whether he had the fine portrait of Carlyle from The Graphic, while in his studio and in the fields he drew diggers, sowers and peat cutters. The year before, describing an old fisherman by a hearth painted by Israëls, he had said the man had exactly Carlyle’s head.

The Ferocious Reader

He read Carlyle and readily defended him. Some said Carlyle not only strips mankind naked but skins it too; not true, he wrote: Carlyle was simply honest enough not to call the shirt the skin, and he puts man in a high place. Of Taine’s remark that the essence of the English character is the absence of happiness he would not argue the accuracy, only say it showed a mind ‘looking into the darkness until one sees something more in it where others no longer see anything’. And he took Carlyle’s ‘Blessed is he who has found his work’ as his own: he wanted to make figures from the people for the people. The ferocious reader here defends his author, and turns his author’s words into rules for his own work.

The Translator

In June 1883 he quoted Carlyle: the result of an idea must be an action. That autumn in Drenthe he read Heroes and hero-worship and noted ‘we have the duty to be brave’; in November he wrote that the history of Cromwell, as Carlyle conceived it, had shown him that thinking and acting do not rule each other out — the sharp line people draw between them does not in fact exist. Across these letters, phrases from his reading appear alongside his thinking about the work of painting.

Events

1882-12 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 294
He wrote that Carlyle’s ‘Blessed is he who has found his work’ was absolutely true; when he said he wanted to make figures from the people for the people, the course of events could affect him only indirectly — making the drawings themselves was his main concern.
c. 1883-03-05 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 325
He told Rappard he was reading Carlyle’s Sartor resartus, in which ‘old clothes’ stand for all manner of forms and, in religion, all dogmas — ‘beautiful — and honest — and humane’. Some said Carlyle not only strips mankind naked but skins it too; that was not true, he wrote, but Carlyle was honest enough not to call the shirt the skin.
1883-06-22 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 356
He quoted Carlyle: the result of an idea must not be a feeling but an action. He also cited the ‘Worship of sorrow’, and said he found something of it in Degroux and Daumier.
1883-07-02 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 358
He wrote that the dealer Tersteeg would probably always remain ‘the everlasting no’ to him; against that, one finds an everlasting yes in the example of men of character. In the same letter he said that Legros’s etching Carlyle in his Study often came to mind when he tried to imagine Millet, or anyone else, as he really was.
c. 1883-07-03 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 359
He told Rappard that Taine’s remark on Dickens and Carlyle — ‘the essence of the English character is the absence of happiness’ — whatever its accuracy, was evidence of very deep reflection: looking into the darkness until one sees something more in it where others no longer see anything.
1883-07-22 The Translator · Letter 363
He sent Theo photographs of recent drawings and listed them in his letter: Sower, Potato Grubbers and Peat Diggers.

From the Letters

Blessed is he who has found his work zegt Carlyle en dat is gedecideerd waar.

Blessed is he who has found his work, says Carlyle, and that’s absolutely true.

Letter 294

ik lees op ’t moment “Sartor resartus” – de philosophie van oude kleeren – van hem/ onder de “oude kleeren” rekent hij allerlei vormen en in zake van godsdienst alle dogma’s – mooi is het – en trouw – en humaan.

At the moment I’m reading his ‘Sartor resartus’ — the philosophy of old clothes — under ‘old clothes’ he includes all manner of forms, and in the case of religion all dogmas. It’s beautiful — and honest — and humane.

Letter 325

Een echt Engelsch woord is dat van Carlyle/ “the result of an idea must not be a feeling but an action”

A truly English remark is the one by Carlyle, ‘The result of an idea must not be a feeling but an action’.

Letter 356

Tersteeg zal voor mij wel blijven denk ik “the everlasting no”

To me Tersteeg will I think remain ‘the everlasting no’.

Letter 358

Toch geraakt hij daarmee (Taine) tot merkwaardig diepe gezegden. Zoo las ik een woord van hem – over Dickens en Carlyle/ “le fond du caractère anglais, c’est l’absence du bonheur.” Nu wil ik op de meerdere of mindere juistheid niet aandringen/ alleen zeggen dat zulke woorden bewijzen zijn van zeer diep nadenken/ kijken met de oogen in de duisternis tot men er nog wat in ziet waar een ander niets meer ziet.

Still, through that he (Taine) arrives at curiously deep pronouncements. For example, I read a remark of his — about Dickens and Carlyle: ‘the essence of the English character is the absence of happiness.’ Now I don’t want to insist on the greater or lesser accuracy, but just say that such words are evidence of very deep reflection, looking into the darkness with one’s eyes until one sees something more in it where others no longer see anything.

Letter 359

Letter Sources

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