let876

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Source XML: let876.xml
Title: Theo van Gogh to Vincent van Gogh. Paris, Monday, 2 June 1890.
Generated: 2026-01-16T18:45:25Z

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Paris le 2 Juin 1890 Mon cher Vincent, La semaine dernière j’ai été très occupé par cette exposition de Raffaëlli / nous restions ouvert jusqu’à 10 h. du soir. Sans cela je t’aurais déjà répondu à ta dernière lettre. J’espère que le pays reste te plaire & que ta pension soit bonne. Chez la mère Siron à Barbizon on payait f s 5.– ou f s 4. 50 si on y restait longtemps & c’était excellent. Quand j’ai été à Auvers j’ai diné avec mon ami Martin dans une auberge qui était en bas. Il y avait je crois l’Oise / ensuite des champs, la grande route et cette auberge était à cette route _ On y mangeait fort bien à cette époque-là & pas chèr. Il faut que j’y vienne une fois & j’ai bien des oreilles pour ta proposition de venir avec Jo & le petit, car je me sens bien vidé & la campagne me ferait du bien. Mais il faut aussi aller voir la mère & les parents à Jo. Si je peux avoir 3 semaines de vacances à peu près nous irions d’abord chez toi et ensuite en Hollande. Ce serait au commencement du mois d’Aout probablement. Il ferait beaucoup de bien à nous tous d’être un peu à la campagne. Ce que tu m’écris du docteur Gachet m’intéresse beaucoup, j’espère que tu deviendras bons amis avec lui. J’aimerais bien avoir un ami médecin, car à chaque instant on voudrait savoir, pour le petit surtout / d’où proviennent des malaises. Il va heureusement assez bien, mais il y a aujourd’hui huit jour, nous étions allé à S t Cloud et là nous avons été surpris par un torrent de pluie comme je n’en ai jamais vu. Le café où nous nous sommes refugiés était inondé / il y avait bien un pied d’eau _ Cela & la bousculade le soir pour avoir le train nous a donné des inquiétud es mais il n’en a eu qu’un fort rume & Jo n’a rien eu quoiqu’il eût été probable que son lait n’eût plus été bon. Cela arrive par les pieds mouillés. Il est arrivé içi un paquet de retour de S t Remy que je t’expédie _ D r Peyron m’en a avisé en demendant de tes nouvelles. Nous serons heureux d’avoir de tes bonnes nouvelles. Si tu étais içi le petit te sourierait gentilment. Comme le sourire d’un enfant est dégagé de tout autre préoccupation. Bonne poignée de mains & bien bonjour de Jo & du petit Theo inquiétud es < Text lost due to the edge of the paper. Paris 2 June 1890 My dear Vincent, Last week I was very busy with that Raffaëlli exhibition, we stayed open until 10 o’clock in the evening. Without that I would already have replied to your last letter. I hope that the area continues to please you and that your boarding-house is good. At mère Siron ’s in Barbizon people paid 5 francs, or 4 francs 50 if they stayed there a long time, and it was excellent. When I was in Auvers I dined with my friend Martin in an inn that was down below. There was the Oise there, I think, next some fields, the main road, and this inn was on this road. One ate extremely well there in those days, and not expensively. I must come one time, and I’m very receptive to your proposal that I should come with Jo and the little one , for I feel quite emptied, and the countryside would do me good. But we must also see Mother and Jo’s parents . If I can have around 3 weeks’ holiday, we’d first go to you and then to Holland. That would be at the beginning of August, probably. It would do us all a lot of good to spend a little time in the country. What you write about Doctor Gachet interests me a great deal, I hope that you’ll become good friends with him. I’d very much like to have a friend who was a doctor, for at every turn one would like to know, especially for the little one, where illnesses come from. Fortunately he’s quite well, but a week ago we’d gone to St-Cloud, and there we were caught unawares by torrential rain the like of which I’ve never seen. The café where we took refuge was flooded, there was a good foot of water. That and the jostling in the evening to get the train made us worried, but all he had was a heavy cold and Jo had nothing, although her milk would probably no longer have been good. That can happen with wet feet. A parcel arrived here, returned from St-Rémy, and I’m sending it to you. Dr Peyron told me about it when asking for news of you. We’ll be happy to have good news from you. If you were here the little one would smile nicely at you. How detached from all other preoccupations is the smile of a child. Good handshake, and warm regards from Jo and the little one . Theo An exhibition of 61 works by Jean-François Raffaëlli was held between 27 May and 21 June at Boussod, Valadon & Cie. See exhib. cat. Paris 1890-3. Read: ‘continue à te plaire’. This refers to the café-restaurant run since 1867 by Emmanuel Siron in Barbizon; most of their guests were painters. Siron called it the ‘Hôtel de l’exposition’, because there were always paintings on display. The establishment is now the Hôtellerie du Bas-Bréau, 22 Grande rue. ‘Mère Siron’ must refer to Emmanuel’s wife. See L’Ecole de Barbizon. Peindre en plein air avant l’impressionnisme . Vincent Pomarède and Gérard de Wallens. Exhib. cat. Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts), 2002. Paris 2002, p. 112. Probably the art dealer Pierre Firmin Martin , who was an acquaintance of Theo (cf. letters 592 and 718 ). The ‘grande route’ was rue de Pontoise in Auvers. The inn Theo talks about could be either Auberge Saint-Aubin in rue de Pontoise ( see letter 873, n. 1 ) or Café-Auberge Chez Colignon in rue Rémy, which leads to rue de Pontoise. Read: ‘je suis bien tenté par’. Theo wrote to Willemien about this plan that same day, and also told her about seeing Vincent upon his return from Saint-Rémy: ‘Oh Wil, you would be as happy as we were to see Vincent back like he is. He has never looked as healthy as he does now, and he also talks quite normally. Still, he feels that the attacks could come back, and is afraid of that. It seems that it takes him unawares and that nothing can be done about it, at least in St Remy, but rest’ (FR b931). Saint-Cloud, about 9 km west of Paris. One of its attractions was its seventeenth-century park. The excursion took place on Whit Sunday, i.e. 25 May ( see letter 880 ). This letter from Peyron to Theo is not known.