Vincent van Gogh's Letters (#5)

Something that I found fascinating about Vincent van Gogh is that he wrote letters to has family and friends describing major events in his life and the feelings that he had about certain situations. It is through these letters that we were able to learn so much about his life. I find it so interesting that we are able to read letters written by van Gogh to attempt to understand his emotions rather than having to rely solely on his artwork to piece the puzzle together.

There are a total of 928 surviving letters either written or received by van Gogh. The majority of these letters were written to or sent from his best friend and brother, Theo. The collection also includes letters written by van Gogh to his sister Wil, his mother, various other relatives, and other artists such as Paul Gauguin and Anthon van Rappard.

When looking at the letters, I also found it interesting that van Gogh sent his brother Theo small sketches of the landscapes of famous paintings that he would later create. For example, this letter shows a small, rough sketch of a tree that later appears in van Gogh's painting "Small Pear Tree in Blossom."  

Vincent van Gogh also includes a sketch of "The Potato Eaters" in another letter.