The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

“I’m glad you’ve been reading Michelet & that you understand him so well. If that kind of book teaches us anything it is that there is much more to love than people generally suppose. To me, this book has been both a revelation and a gospel.”

Van Gogh’s favorite author over the course of his life was Jules Michelet, though he also had a particular fondness for George Eliot. As can be seen here, he often used religious language to describe his love of these authors’ works, indicating that his belief in The Links Between Religious and Artistic Life applied not only to visual art, but also to literature.

“Did I write to you about the storm I watched not long ago? The sea was yellowish, especially close to the shore. On the horizon a streak of light and above it immensely large dark grey clouds, from which one could see the rain coming down in slanting streaks. The wind blew the dust from the little white path among the rocks into the sea and shook the hawthorn bushes in bloom and the wallflowers that grow on the rocks. To the right, fields of young green corn, and in the distance the town, which, with its towers, mills, slate roofs, Gothic-style houses and the harbour below, between 2 jetties sticking out into the sea, looked like the towns Albert Dürer used to etch.”

This highly detailed description of the landscape in Ramsgate betrays Van Gogh’s painterly eye, even though it was written years before he decided to become a painter, reflecting Van Gogh’s Relationship with the Arts. In general, Van Gogh had a very verbose writing style, but his tendency to write full paragraphs about the landscape suggests his particular love of nature without having to state it explicitly.

“When I stood in the pulpit I felt like someone emerging from a dark vault underground into the friendly light of day, and it is a wonderful thought that wherever I shall go from this day forward I shall be preaching the Gospel.”

Van Gogh’s simile to describe his first experience preaching draws upon religious imagery of darkness giving way to light that is used in many places throughout The Bible. The profound hope that Van Gogh felt regarding the prospect of a clerical career is at its purest moment here.