June 19, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]

Paris, 19 June 1875

My dear Theo,

I had hoped to see her again before she died, and that didn’t happen. Man proposes and God disposes.


In the first crate we send to Holland you’ll find a photo of that painting by P. de Champaigne, of which Michelet said, ‘she stayed with me for 30 years, coming back to me incessantly’, also an etching by Daubigny after Ruisdael’s ‘Bush’, a lithograph after Corot’s ‘Sunset’, a lithograph by Bodmer, ‘Fontainebleau in the autumn’ and two Jacque etchings.


Adieu

Vincent

I don’t know how long I’ll be staying here, but before I return to London I hope to go to Helvoirt. I hope you’ll be there too. I’ll pay for the journey.

You certainly won’t forget her and her death, but keep it to yourself. This is one of those things that, little by little, makes us ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’; and that we must become.

May 31, 1875

[Letterhead: Goupil Paris]

Paris, 31 May 1875

My dear Theo,

Thanks for your letter of this morning.

Yesterday I saw the Corot exhibition. It included a painting of the ‘Mount of Olives’; I’m glad he painted that.

On the right, a group of olive trees, dark against the darkening blue sky; in the background hills covered with shrubs and a couple of tall trees, above them the evening star.

There are 3 Corots at the Salon, very beautiful, the most beautiful one, painted shortly before his death, ‘Women cutting wood’, will probably appear as a woodcut in L’Illustration or Le Monde Illustré.

I’ve also seen the Louvre and the Luxembourg, as you can imagine.

The Ruisdaels in the Louvre are magnificent, especially ‘The bush’, ‘The breakwater’ and ‘The ray of sunlight’.


I wish you could see the small Rembrandts there, the ‘Supper at Emmaus’, and two pendants, ‘The philosophers’.

I recently saw Jules Breton with his wife and two daughters. Physically he reminded me of J. Maris, though he has dark hair.

When I have the chance I’ll send you a book of his, ‘Les champs et la mer’, which contains all his poems.

He has a beautiful painting at the Salon, ‘The feast of St John’, peasant girls dancing on a summer evening round the St John’s bonfire, in the background the village with its church and the moon above it.

Dance, young maidens, dance,
As you sing your songs of love!
Tomorrow, at break of day,
You’ll go, hastening to ply your sickles.

There are now 3 paintings by him in the Luxembourg. ‘Procession through a cornfield’, ‘Women gleaning’ and ‘Alone’.


Adieu

Vincent