To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Friday, 9 May 1873.

Vincent van Gogh, the letters

To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Friday, 9 May 1873. Leo Jansen Hans Luijten Nienke Bakker
Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (KNAW) info@huygens.knaw.nl Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam 2009

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

vangoghletters.org/orig/let008
008 8 008
Vincent van Gogh Theo van Gogh The Hague Friday, 9 May 1873

To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Friday, 9 May 1873.

Original manuscript

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, inv. no. b8 V/1962

Letter headed: ‘den Haag 9 Mei 1873’.

[1]
den Haag 9 Mei 1873
Waarde Theo,
Maandag morgen
vertrek ik van Helvoirt
naar Parijs & passeer
Brussel om 2 uur 7 min.─
Als je kunt kom dan aan ’t station/
dat zal mij veel genoegen
doen.
Voor ik het vergeet; gisteren [2]
heb ik aan Mevr. Tersteeg je
portret laten zien & die
zou er zoo heel graag een
hebben. Zou je soms kans
zien er nog een te krijgen
& mij te sturen.
Als het nu niet kan
denk er dan later eens
om.─
Theo je kunt niet begrij-
pen hoe lief allen hier voor
mij zijn; dat het mij spijt
van zooveel vrienden te
moeten scheiden kan
je wel denken.─
[3]
Adieu kerel/ groet Oom
& Tante hartelijk voor
mij. tot ziens_

Vincent.
Informeer eens of je aan
’t Station du Nord of du Midi
moet wezen.─
[1]
The Hague, 9 May 1873
My dear Theo,
On Monday morning I’ll leave Helvoirt for Paris, passing through Brussels at 2:07. Do come to the station if you can; it would give me great pleasure.
Before I forget, yesterday [2] I showed your portrait to Mrs Tersteeg, and she would like very much to have one. Would you have a chance to get another one and send it to me?
If you can’t do it now, try to think of it some other time.
Theo, you have no idea how kind to me they all are here; you can imagine how sorry I am to have to part from so many friends. [3]
Adieu, old chap, give my warm regards to Uncle and Aunt. Goodbye for now.
Vincent.
Find out whether you have to be at the Station du Nord or du Midi.
Van Gogh was planning to be in Helvoirt by Saturday evening, 10 May to take leave of his parents (FR b2626); he left Helvoirt on Monday, 12 May. On his way to London he stopped off in Paris, where he spent nearly a week.
Maria Magdalena Alida Tersteeg-Pronk, wife of Van Gogh’s superior Hermanus Gijsbertus Tersteeg. For this portrait, cf. letter 5, n. 5.
Mrs van Gogh wrote to Theo on 11 May, when Vincent was in Helvoirt: ‘It’s wonderful to hear Vincent telling about how kind everyone was to him and about his leave-taking from The Hague. He was given an album and so many little presents and portraits, two very large, splendid portraits of Uncle and Aunt Haanebeek, Mr and Mrs Tersteeg and Betsy, Aunt Fietje and the girls, and others’ (FR b2626).
Uncle Hein and Aunt Mietje in Brussels.
Van Gogh took the train that went to Paris via Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels. According to the 1873 timetable, the train arrived at 14.06 at Brussels North; the connection to Paris left from Brussels South at 14.35 and arrived in Paris at 21.05 (Brussels, Archives of the Belgian Railways).