1875-09 · Paris · Knot of Silence

The Goupil Gallery Years in Paris

By day he sold paintings, by night he copied books. Image and word ranged side by side for the first time.

No painting at this knot — only a letter.

Letter

September 1875, Paris. He wrote to Theo: "I have just read Adam Bede by George Eliot — what a beautiful book." Another letter: "I copied passages from Michelet for you." His double-track life — selling paintings by day, copying books by night — made "image" and "word" range systematically side by side in his mind for the first time. His earliest "bilingual training."

Place

Paris, Montmartre, the Goupil gallery. Paris in the 1870s was the centre of the world's visual language — Impressionism was just beginning to exhibit (though he had not yet seen it), Japanese prints were entering Paris through Bing (though he had not yet heard of them), reproductions of Millet, Corot, and Daubigny were everywhere. He worked at the centre of this image flood for five years.

Events

1875-05 The Translator · Letter 42
Transferred from London to the Goupil gallery in Paris. Encountering hundreds of prints and photographs daily
1875-09 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 44
Reading George Eliot's Adam Bede. 'What a beautiful book.'
1875-09 The Translator · Letter 47
'I copied passages from Michelet for you.' The non-self-aware operation of the translator begins
1875-12 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 50
Reading Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris and Thomas à Kempis's The Imitation of Christ at the same time — literature and religion side by side

From the Letters

I have just read Adam Bede by George Eliot — what a beautiful book.

Letter 44

I copied passages from Michelet for you.

Letter 47

I see so many pictures every day at the gallery — and in the evening I read. The two things belong together.

Letter 43

Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris — it makes one see the old city as if one were there.

Letter 46

Books teach me to look — and looking teaches me to read better.

Letter 50

I read Thomas à Kempis every evening — it calms me after a day of pictures.

Letter 52

Letter Sources

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