Theo's letters to him

The finest light shed on our painter, from any source other than his own brush or pen, is that of Theo's letters to him. Incidentally, they show anew the noble character of the younger brother, though we need no further demonstration of it than the long-continued financial--and, better yet--moral support which we read of in Vincent's letters. But in those of Theo one appreciates the delicacy with which the aid was rendered--one might better say the unconsciousness of any merit in helping a great man whom he alone, by accident, could judge at his true value. At various times he protests that Vincent more than makes up to him for all he does. The slender volume of Theo's letters contains a few also from his wife to Vincent, and one of the latter, more beautifully than anything else, gives the measure of these men--and of the woman who wrote the lines. Far from home and still a stranger in the foreign city, she thinks of the possibility of dying in the childbirth that awaits her in a few hours. So she takes her pen and writes to her brother-in-law whom she has never seen but who is so real to her through his pictures, his letters, and her husband's words. She tells him that should she not come safely through the ordeal before her, Vincent is to comfort Theo and tell him she was happy because he had done everything to give happiness to her.

It is worth while to think of the immediate family of van Gogh and of the love his brother gave him through the long years. So much has been written about the misery of artists and his own in particular that we need to see the consolation he had, the work itself being, of course, his chief one. Indeed, as we look today at his glorious production, the career of this man, who often lacked food, who knew grievous bodily and mental ills, defeat, despair, and suicide at last, becomes a series of triumphs. To go from the dark but splendid painting of his earlier period to the full diapason of his latest work is to know that he tasted success for which any artist would pay any price.