Vincent van Gogh - The Letters

"There was a 19th century French statesman who said, “When we ask for advice, we’re generally looking for an accomplice.” It’s a beautiful sentiment, I think, because so often when we ask a question or say we don’t know something, our first reaction is to feel vulnerable, that we’re putting ourselves in an inferior, less confident position. It’s a fascinating thing with inkblots, for instance, that when people say what they see in them – see in these completely abstract images, waiting to have meaning projected onto them – they often say, “Is that right? Am I right?” Get the weekly Five Books newsletter So I was thinking of great accomplices, and a classic example is Van Gogh’s brother, Theo. So this is a book of Van Gogh’s letters to Theo: Van Gogh, for example, at 19, trying to work out what to do with himself, recommending to Theo to smoke a pipe – very good to cheer yourself up if you’re in bad spirits, as Van Gogh often was. It took him a long time to work out what to do. He tried being an art dealer and a lay preacher and other things. And then Theo encouraged him to paint. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Van Gogh obviously felt so comforted and loved by his brother. His letters are amazing, and he says everything that he’s trying to do in his art, and what he thought about other painters; what he thought about the technical process and the practicalities of that, and then all his feelings and hopes and loneliness and struggles. It’s just a very brilliant example of somebody having someone in their lives they can communicate with. Well, we only have 39 of Theo’s letters to Van Gogh, although we have hundreds of Van Gogh’s to Theo, which consequently often read as though he’s having a conversation with himself. I think of inkblots as quite a humble but nonetheless good example of a catalyst that triggers ideas and feelings. But anything can have that effect, can’t it? And then it’s interesting what sort of conversations follow, with yourself and other people. It’s a combination of the communicative imagination at work, and the act of self-portraiture – which is what we like about inkblots. We’re saying, let’s stimulate our imaginations so we create; let’s see if it brings up things about ourselves. Let’s see how we evoke ourselves."