JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
- Also see: Found Poetry in the Words in Last Lines from Vincent van Gogh, 1889-1890 https://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2014/03/the-words-in-last-lines-from-vincent-van-gogh-1889-1890.html#more
[Source: Google Maps. This image captured on a virtual walking Google tour of Auvers. This is the view exactly behind the van Gogh brothers' graves, on the other side of the cemetery wall, looking away. See: "There are no Van Goghs in Arles (?)" https://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2014/12/there-are-no-van-goghs-in-arles.html]
So there's a van Gogh quote is making the rounds on social media, and to me it sounds not quite right, like some of the odd Einstein and Newton “quotes” that are never attributed or annotated or properly referenced and just don't exist in the history of the person. I can find a lot of sites using this quote but after looking at a bunch of them no one provides a source reference—some reference another site that simply is carrying the quote though they don't give a source, either.
Anyway, the quote: “I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process”. I'm not a van Gogh scholar, and I'm not even an historian of art. The only bit of van Gogh experience that I have is that I have read all of the published letter in his archive, as well as some incidental reading--this a scholar does not make, though it does give at least a little background to ask a half-decent question.
After checking many of the places using this quote and finding no reference to its origin I went to one of the great van Gogh resources: his correspondence. There are about 903 surviving letters, with ca. 820 written by van Gogh and the balance being letters he received. The great majority of them (about 650) were Vincent writing to his brother, Theo. When I searched the letters for a simple reference of "heart", "soul", and "work" I was surprised to find that there were over 800 hits. When I narrowed the search a little, searching for "heart and soul", the results were drastically changed--there were only 8 hits, none of which were a fit for the elusive quote. There following were among the eight, and to me could be read as quite the opposite of the meanings of the searched-for quote:
"What helped me recover my balance more than anything else was reading practical books on physical and moral diseases. I got a deeper insight into my own heart and also into that of others. Gradually I began to love my fellow men again, myself included, and more and more my heart and soul - which for a time had been withered, blighted and stricken through all kinds of great misery - revived."--12 November, 1881, to Theo.
And:
“I also don’t think that it would be a hindrance if my health let me down on occasion. As far as I can make out, it isn’t the worst painters who can’t work for a week or a fortnight now and then. Sometimes the reason for this is that they’re the very ones who ‘put their heart and soul into it’, as Millet says. That doesn’t matter, and in my view one shouldn’t spare oneself when it comes to the point. One may be exhausted for a while, but one recovers, and the advantage is that one has gathered in one’s studies, just like the farmer does his corn or hay.”--Letter 257 (14 August 1882, to Theo)
And:
“You will understand my intention better than Pa if I were to try to explain such a thing to him. In my view I’m often very rich, not in money, but rich (although not every day exactly) because I’ve found my work — have something which I live for heart and soul and which gives inspiration and meaning to life.”
“My mood varies, of course, but nonetheless I have a certain average serenity. I have a certain faith in art, a certain trust that it’s a powerful current that drives a person — although he has to cooperate — to a haven, and in any case I consider it such a great happiness if a person has found his work that I don’t count myself among the unfortunate.”
"I have a certain average serenity"!--Letter 327 (11 March 1883, to Theo)
There were no hits in the van Gogh letter archives for the phrases "lost my mind" or "heart and my soul into my work". It certainly seems as though that the source of the quote is not in the correspondence.
If you know the source for the much-quoted quote, I'd be very keen to know of it.
Notes:
Sources for the van Gogh letters:
- http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/
- http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html (Van Gogh Museum)
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