IDENTITY
Letter 215 — Practice, Progress & Learning to See
The Hague, 1882
Content Summary
Around 6 April 1882 at The Hague, Van Gogh reflects on improvement through doing one’s best in the present and on learning to recognize the characteristic lines that make a subject essential.
CONTEXT
Topics
Artistic Practice, Progress, Learning, Drawing, Observation, Essential Lines
Materials & Pigments
Related People
Vincent van Gogh, Theo van Gogh, Charles Bargue
Paintings
RESEARCH
Quotation
But the way to do it better later is to do it as well as one can today, there can’t be anything but progress tomorrow.
Research Focus
The letter articulates a formative idea about artistic progress: skill develops through sustained practice, while observation becomes more selective as the artist learns to identify the lines that carry a subject’s character.
Related Work / Relevance
SOURCES & EVIDENCE
Source Type
Letter
Source
Source Edition
Vincent van Gogh — The Letters, scholarly online edition (Van Gogh Museum / Huygens ING)
Source URL
Evidence Type
Primary Source, Scholarly Annotation
Related Readings