The Best Letters and Quotes
Delve into Van Gogh's finest letters and share your favourite quotes.
Van Gogh wrote more than 2,000 letters
Vincent van Gogh was a passionate letter writer. He had a strong need to share his ideas and feelings. After Vincent, his brothers and his sisters had all left home, they often wrote to each other and to their parents.
Many of Vincent’s letters have survived, and even some of the replies. The total correspondence features 903 letters: 820 by Van Gogh and 83 to him. By far the most letters are to his brother Theo, his best friend and loyal supporter. Theo kept Vincent’s letters with great care. Vincent was less careful – he threw lots of letters away, or burned them.
Van Gogh actually wrote a lot more letters, he probably wrote more than 2,000 in total. We can make this estimation thanks to comments in the letters such as ‘I wrote to … today’, and ‘I just received a letter from…’.
Theo van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh