Van Gogh Letters
@vangoghletters.bsky.social
From Vincent to Theo, in skeet form by @havetopissbadly.bsky.social
Pinned
I must again recommend that you start smoking a pipe. It does you a lot of good when you’re out of spirits, as I quite often am nowadays.
Last Sunday evening I went to a village on the Thames, Petersham. In the morning I had been at the Sunday school at Turnham Green, and went after sunset from there to Richmond and then on to Petersham.
November 6, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Last Sunday evening I went to a village on the Thames, Petersham. In the morning I had been at the Sunday school at Turnham Green, and went after sunset from there to Richmond and then on to Petersham.
How I’d have liked to go along on that walk to Het Heike and to Sprundel in the first snow.
November 2, 2025 at 7:17 PM
How I’d have liked to go along on that walk to Het Heike and to Sprundel in the first snow.
Do whatever your hand finds to do, with all your might, and your work and prayers cannot fail to be blessed.
September 24, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Do whatever your hand finds to do, with all your might, and your work and prayers cannot fail to be blessed.
From the other end of L. I bid you all good-day! I left this morning at 4 o’clock, now it’s 2. I just came through the old cabbage fields, now on to Lewisham. A man sometimes says, how shall I manage it?
September 23, 2025 at 5:04 PM
From the other end of L. I bid you all good-day! I left this morning at 4 o’clock, now it’s 2. I just came through the old cabbage fields, now on to Lewisham. A man sometimes says, how shall I manage it?
As I sit writing to you in my room and it’s so very, very quiet and I look around at your portraits and the prints on the wall, Christus Consolator and Good Friday and the Women at the sepulchre and The old Huguenot
September 23, 2025 at 3:55 PM
As I sit writing to you in my room and it’s so very, very quiet and I look around at your portraits and the prints on the wall, Christus Consolator and Good Friday and the Women at the sepulchre and The old Huguenot
Mr Jones’s children are better again, but now 3 of the boys have the measles.
This week I had to go on a journey for Mr Jones with one of the boys to Acton Green, which is that grassy area that the sexton’s window looks out on.
This week I had to go on a journey for Mr Jones with one of the boys to Acton Green, which is that grassy area that the sexton’s window looks out on.
September 9, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Mr Jones’s children are better again, but now 3 of the boys have the measles.
This week I had to go on a journey for Mr Jones with one of the boys to Acton Green, which is that grassy area that the sexton’s window looks out on.
This week I had to go on a journey for Mr Jones with one of the boys to Acton Green, which is that grassy area that the sexton’s window looks out on.
And so the weeks pass and we approach winter, and the congenial Christmas festivities. Tomorrow I have to be in two remote parts of London, in Whitechapel – that extremely poor area which you’ll have read about in Dickens – and then cross the Thames in a boat and from there to Lewisham.
September 9, 2025 at 2:44 PM
And so the weeks pass and we approach winter, and the congenial Christmas festivities. Tomorrow I have to be in two remote parts of London, in Whitechapel – that extremely poor area which you’ll have read about in Dickens – and then cross the Thames in a boat and from there to Lewisham.
Next Sunday evening I have to go to Petersham to a Methodist church; Petersham is a village on the Thames, about 20 minutes beyond Richmond; I don’t know yet what I’ll talk about, the prodigal son or Ps. 42:1.
September 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Next Sunday evening I have to go to Petersham to a Methodist church; Petersham is a village on the Thames, about 20 minutes beyond Richmond; I don’t know yet what I’ll talk about, the prodigal son or Ps. 42:1.
In the afternoon Mr Jones and his son and I went and had tea with the sexton, a shoemaker who lives in one of the suburbs.
August 22, 2025 at 3:51 PM
In the afternoon Mr Jones and his son and I went and had tea with the sexton, a shoemaker who lives in one of the suburbs.
Last Sunday I arrived at Turnham Green early to teach at Sunday school; it was a real, English, rainy day. In the morning Mr Jones delivered a sermon on the woman of Samaria, and afterwards there was Sunday school.
August 20, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Last Sunday I arrived at Turnham Green early to teach at Sunday school; it was a real, English, rainy day. In the morning Mr Jones delivered a sermon on the woman of Samaria, and afterwards there was Sunday school.
You then ask, too, whether I still give lessons to the boys: I do so every day until 1:00, and then after 1:00 I usually have to go out for Mr Jones, or sometimes also teach Mr Jones’s children or a couple of boys in town. And then in the evening and in my spare moments I write in my sermon book.
August 20, 2025 at 1:45 AM
You then ask, too, whether I still give lessons to the boys: I do so every day until 1:00, and then after 1:00 I usually have to go out for Mr Jones, or sometimes also teach Mr Jones’s children or a couple of boys in town. And then in the evening and in my spare moments I write in my sermon book.
Where do Mr Jones and the others get their income from? Yes, I’ve thought about that many times. Here one often hears it said that God takes care of those who work for Him. I dearly long to talk to you about this and to confer.
August 19, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Where do Mr Jones and the others get their income from? Yes, I’ve thought about that many times. Here one often hears it said that God takes care of those who work for Him. I dearly long to talk to you about this and to confer.
There’s a new assistant teacher at the school, because I’ll have to work more at Turnham Green from now on. He has never been away from home before, and won’t find it easy in the beginning.
July 28, 2025 at 4:40 AM
There’s a new assistant teacher at the school, because I’ll have to work more at Turnham Green from now on. He has never been away from home before, and won’t find it easy in the beginning.
Today one of the maids left, they don’t have it easy here and she couldn’t stand it any longer – indeed, everyone, richer or poorer, stronger or weaker, has moments when he can go no further, when ‘all these things seem to be against us’, when much of what we have built collapses.
July 27, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Today one of the maids left, they don’t have it easy here and she couldn’t stand it any longer – indeed, everyone, richer or poorer, stronger or weaker, has moments when he can go no further, when ‘all these things seem to be against us’, when much of what we have built collapses.
And now we’re slowly heading towards winter, and many dread it, but Christmas is wonderful, it’s like the moss on the roofs and like the pine and the holly and the ivy in the snow.
July 16, 2025 at 5:28 AM
And now we’re slowly heading towards winter, and many dread it, but Christmas is wonderful, it’s like the moss on the roofs and like the pine and the holly and the ivy in the snow.
It is indeed true that every day has its own evil and its own good, too.
July 15, 2025 at 3:57 AM
It is indeed true that every day has its own evil and its own good, too.
I’ve taken such lovely walks recently, which were especially good after the anxiety of the first months here.
July 15, 2025 at 1:41 AM
I’ve taken such lovely walks recently, which were especially good after the anxiety of the first months here.
If you can get ‘The imitation of Christ’ one of these days, read some of it, it’s a wonderful book, one that’s very enlightening.
July 14, 2025 at 3:45 AM
If you can get ‘The imitation of Christ’ one of these days, read some of it, it’s a wonderful book, one that’s very enlightening.
What lovely autumn weather we’re having. You probably see the sun rising in the morning too. Which room are you sleeping in?
July 9, 2025 at 2:38 PM
What lovely autumn weather we’re having. You probably see the sun rising in the morning too. Which room are you sleeping in?
It was lovely in the park with the old elm trees in the moonlight and the dew on the grass. It was so good for me to speak in the little church, it is a little wooden church.
July 7, 2025 at 1:01 AM
It was lovely in the park with the old elm trees in the moonlight and the dew on the grass. It was so good for me to speak in the little church, it is a little wooden church.
Do we not feel this sometimes on the sea of our lives. Does not everyone of you feel with me the storms of life or their forebodings or their recollections?
July 4, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Do we not feel this sometimes on the sea of our lives. Does not everyone of you feel with me the storms of life or their forebodings or their recollections?
Yesterday evening I went to Richmond again, and took a walk there on a large common surrounded by trees, and houses around it, above which the tower rose.
June 28, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Yesterday evening I went to Richmond again, and took a walk there on a large common surrounded by trees, and houses around it, above which the tower rose.
How I long for Christmas and to see all of you, old boy, it seems to me that I’ve grown years older in these few months.
June 20, 2025 at 7:10 PM
How I long for Christmas and to see all of you, old boy, it seems to me that I’ve grown years older in these few months.
When I stood in the pulpit I felt like someone emerging from a dark, underground vault into the friendly daylight, and it’s a wonderful thought that from now on, wherever I go, I’ll be preaching the gospel – to do that well one must have the gospel in his heart, may He bring this about.
June 20, 2025 at 3:46 PM
When I stood in the pulpit I felt like someone emerging from a dark, underground vault into the friendly daylight, and it’s a wonderful thought that from now on, wherever I go, I’ll be preaching the gospel – to do that well one must have the gospel in his heart, may He bring this about.
It was a clear autumn day and a lovely walk from here to Richmond along the Thames, which reflected the large chestnut trees with their load of yellow leaves and the clear blue sky, and between the tree-tops the part of Richmond that lies on the hill,
June 17, 2025 at 9:35 PM
It was a clear autumn day and a lovely walk from here to Richmond along the Thames, which reflected the large chestnut trees with their load of yellow leaves and the clear blue sky, and between the tree-tops the part of Richmond that lies on the hill,