My dear Theo,
Though it is only a short time since I wrote to you, I have something more to tell you now.
For there has been a change in my drawings, both in the way I set about them and in the result.
Also, as a consequence of some of the things Mauve told me, I have started to work with live models again. Luckily I have been able to get several people to sit here for me, including Piet Kaufman, the labourer.
Careful study and the constant & repeated copying of Bargue's Exercices au fusain have given me a better insight into figuredrawing. I have learned to measure and to see and to look for the broad outlines, so that, thank God, what seemed utterly impossible to me before is gradually becoming possible now. I have drawn a man with a spade, that is 'un becheur', times over in a variety of poses, a sower twice, and a girl with a broom twice. Then a woman in a white cap peeling potatoes & a shepherd leaning on his crook and finally an old, sick peasant sitting on a chair by the hearth with his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees.
MOST POPULAR PAINTINGS
Vincent van Gogh's Letters
The Starry Night
Café Terrace at Night
Sunflowers
Self Portrait
Irise
Starry Night over the Rhone
Almond Blossom
Wheatfield with Crows
Tree Roots