![ebc8703[web1].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd894e5323b835b65867f87/5f182996-f656-4a63-98ea-1a1f00738833/ebc8703%5Bweb1%5D.jpg)
![ebc8703[web2].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fd894e5323b835b65867f87/ea2a8854-f3be-4181-9de8-031f8363420f/ebc8703%5Bweb2%5D.jpg)
Fine Autograph Letter Signed to David Croal Thomson. VAN GOGH (Theo).
THEO VAN GOGH FROM PARIS TO HIS COLLEAGUE AND FRIEND IN LONDON
In black ink on three pages of a folded 8vo sheet with engraved letterhead of Goupil & Co. / Boussod, Valadon & Co. [199 x 130 mm].
Paris: 19 Boulevard Montmartre, 14th February 1890.
A substantial and significant letter written by Theo Van Gogh from Paris to his colleague in London, David Croal Thomson ("My dear Mr Thomson") two weeks after the birth of his only child Vincent Willem. "Mrs Van Gogh and I were very much pleased with your kind letter & we thank you and Mrs Thomson very sincerely for your good wishes and I am happy to say that the mother and child are all right. When you come to Paris we hope you will do us the pleasure, to come to our home to see the baby". He goes on to discuss business, notifying Thomson that he was sending a photograph of a picture by Rouseau, for possible sale in London ("It cost RNXXX and we don't want a great profit") and that he had bought four pictures in Rheims for his Daubigny exhibition and could also offer etchings by Charles Jacques and Charles Waltner, with prices noted. He signs off "With our kindest regards to your wife & beg to remain yours very truly T Van Gogh".
The second page is slightly smudged but entirely legible and the paper is a little browned and with a faint horizontal fold. It has been hiding in a draw in a desk at George Bayntun in Bath for many years. It comes with two other letters to Thomson, one an ALS from Leslie Agnew, the other typed on Buckingham Palace headed paper dated 1917 and signed by Edward Wallington, Private Secretary to H.M. Queen Mary.
Letters from Theo Van Gogh rarely appear for sale with only four recorded in the last 50 years. RR Auction sold two written to Albert Aurier in French, the first on 14/06/2017, lot 434, for $6125, the second on 10/03/2021, lot 378, for $10,330.
Theo Van Gogh (born 1857) followed in the footsteps of his uncle, Vincent senior, and joined the Brussels office of the art dealers Goupil & Cie in 1873. He was then transferred to the London office (where he learned his excellent English), then back to the Hague, and then to Paris in 1884 (where it was renamed Boussod, Valadon & Cie). On 17th April 1889 he married Johanna Bonger and on 31st January 1890 Vincent Willem was born.
Theo's brother Vincent was a great admirer of the Brabizon School painter and printmaker Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878) and on his death wrote to Theo: "A work that is good may not last forever, but the thought expressed in it will, and the work itself will surely survive for a very long time, and those who come later can do no more than follow in the footsteps of such predecessors and copy their example". Between May and July 1890 Vincent painted three versions of Daubigny's Garden at Auvers, presenting one to his widow. Vincent died on 29th July and Theo followed him on 25th January 1891. In 1914 his remains were transferred to Auvers where he was buried next to Vincent.
David Croal Thomson was born in Edinburgh in 1855 and managed the London branch of Goupil & Co. from 1885 to 1897. In 1890 he published The Brabizon School of Painters. He then went on to be a partner at Agnew's from 1898 to 1908, was with the French Gallery in Pall Mall from 1909 to 1918 and ran Brabizon House from 1918 to 1924. He was an influential critic, biographer and journalist and was editor of the Art Journal from 1892 to 1902. He married Alice Mary Halton in 1884, and they had four sons and five daughters. He died in 1930, and his archive was acquired by The Getty in 1991. It contains c.1600 letters, but none are recorded as being from Theo (or Vincent) Van Gogh.
Images show pages one and three of the letter.
Stock no. ebc8703.
THEO VAN GOGH FROM PARIS TO HIS COLLEAGUE AND FRIEND IN LONDON
In black ink on three pages of a folded 8vo sheet with engraved letterhead of Goupil & Co. / Boussod, Valadon & Co. [199 x 130 mm].
Paris: 19 Boulevard Montmartre, 14th February 1890.
A substantial and significant letter written by Theo Van Gogh from Paris to his colleague in London, David Croal Thomson ("My dear Mr Thomson") two weeks after the birth of his only child Vincent Willem. "Mrs Van Gogh and I were very much pleased with your kind letter & we thank you and Mrs Thomson very sincerely for your good wishes and I am happy to say that the mother and child are all right. When you come to Paris we hope you will do us the pleasure, to come to our home to see the baby". He goes on to discuss business, notifying Thomson that he was sending a photograph of a picture by Rouseau, for possible sale in London ("It cost RNXXX and we don't want a great profit") and that he had bought four pictures in Rheims for his Daubigny exhibition and could also offer etchings by Charles Jacques and Charles Waltner, with prices noted. He signs off "With our kindest regards to your wife & beg to remain yours very truly T Van Gogh".
The second page is slightly smudged but entirely legible and the paper is a little browned and with a faint horizontal fold. It has been hiding in a draw in a desk at George Bayntun in Bath for many years. It comes with two other letters to Thomson, one an ALS from Leslie Agnew, the other typed on Buckingham Palace headed paper dated 1917 and signed by Edward Wallington, Private Secretary to H.M. Queen Mary.
Letters from Theo Van Gogh rarely appear for sale with only four recorded in the last 50 years. RR Auction sold two written to Albert Aurier in French, the first on 14/06/2017, lot 434, for $6125, the second on 10/03/2021, lot 378, for $10,330.
Theo Van Gogh (born 1857) followed in the footsteps of his uncle, Vincent senior, and joined the Brussels office of the art dealers Goupil & Cie in 1873. He was then transferred to the London office (where he learned his excellent English), then back to the Hague, and then to Paris in 1884 (where it was renamed Boussod, Valadon & Cie). On 17th April 1889 he married Johanna Bonger and on 31st January 1890 Vincent Willem was born.
Theo's brother Vincent was a great admirer of the Brabizon School painter and printmaker Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878) and on his death wrote to Theo: "A work that is good may not last forever, but the thought expressed in it will, and the work itself will surely survive for a very long time, and those who come later can do no more than follow in the footsteps of such predecessors and copy their example". Between May and July 1890 Vincent painted three versions of Daubigny's Garden at Auvers, presenting one to his widow. Vincent died on 29th July and Theo followed him on 25th January 1891. In 1914 his remains were transferred to Auvers where he was buried next to Vincent.
David Croal Thomson was born in Edinburgh in 1855 and managed the London branch of Goupil & Co. from 1885 to 1897. In 1890 he published The Brabizon School of Painters. He then went on to be a partner at Agnew's from 1898 to 1908, was with the French Gallery in Pall Mall from 1909 to 1918 and ran Brabizon House from 1918 to 1924. He was an influential critic, biographer and journalist and was editor of the Art Journal from 1892 to 1902. He married Alice Mary Halton in 1884, and they had four sons and five daughters. He died in 1930, and his archive was acquired by The Getty in 1991. It contains c.1600 letters, but none are recorded as being from Theo (or Vincent) Van Gogh.
Images show pages one and three of the letter.
Stock no. ebc8703.
THEO VAN GOGH FROM PARIS TO HIS COLLEAGUE AND FRIEND IN LONDON
In black ink on three pages of a folded 8vo sheet with engraved letterhead of Goupil & Co. / Boussod, Valadon & Co. [199 x 130 mm].
Paris: 19 Boulevard Montmartre, 14th February 1890.
A substantial and significant letter written by Theo Van Gogh from Paris to his colleague in London, David Croal Thomson ("My dear Mr Thomson") two weeks after the birth of his only child Vincent Willem. "Mrs Van Gogh and I were very much pleased with your kind letter & we thank you and Mrs Thomson very sincerely for your good wishes and I am happy to say that the mother and child are all right. When you come to Paris we hope you will do us the pleasure, to come to our home to see the baby". He goes on to discuss business, notifying Thomson that he was sending a photograph of a picture by Rouseau, for possible sale in London ("It cost RNXXX and we don't want a great profit") and that he had bought four pictures in Rheims for his Daubigny exhibition and could also offer etchings by Charles Jacques and Charles Waltner, with prices noted. He signs off "With our kindest regards to your wife & beg to remain yours very truly T Van Gogh".
The second page is slightly smudged but entirely legible and the paper is a little browned and with a faint horizontal fold. It has been hiding in a draw in a desk at George Bayntun in Bath for many years. It comes with two other letters to Thomson, one an ALS from Leslie Agnew, the other typed on Buckingham Palace headed paper dated 1917 and signed by Edward Wallington, Private Secretary to H.M. Queen Mary.
Letters from Theo Van Gogh rarely appear for sale with only four recorded in the last 50 years. RR Auction sold two written to Albert Aurier in French, the first on 14/06/2017, lot 434, for $6125, the second on 10/03/2021, lot 378, for $10,330.
Theo Van Gogh (born 1857) followed in the footsteps of his uncle, Vincent senior, and joined the Brussels office of the art dealers Goupil & Cie in 1873. He was then transferred to the London office (where he learned his excellent English), then back to the Hague, and then to Paris in 1884 (where it was renamed Boussod, Valadon & Cie). On 17th April 1889 he married Johanna Bonger and on 31st January 1890 Vincent Willem was born.
Theo's brother Vincent was a great admirer of the Brabizon School painter and printmaker Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878) and on his death wrote to Theo: "A work that is good may not last forever, but the thought expressed in it will, and the work itself will surely survive for a very long time, and those who come later can do no more than follow in the footsteps of such predecessors and copy their example". Between May and July 1890 Vincent painted three versions of Daubigny's Garden at Auvers, presenting one to his widow. Vincent died on 29th July and Theo followed him on 25th January 1891. In 1914 his remains were transferred to Auvers where he was buried next to Vincent.
David Croal Thomson was born in Edinburgh in 1855 and managed the London branch of Goupil & Co. from 1885 to 1897. In 1890 he published The Brabizon School of Painters. He then went on to be a partner at Agnew's from 1898 to 1908, was with the French Gallery in Pall Mall from 1909 to 1918 and ran Brabizon House from 1918 to 1924. He was an influential critic, biographer and journalist and was editor of the Art Journal from 1892 to 1902. He married Alice Mary Halton in 1884, and they had four sons and five daughters. He died in 1930, and his archive was acquired by The Getty in 1991. It contains c.1600 letters, but none are recorded as being from Theo (or Vincent) Van Gogh.
Images show pages one and three of the letter.
Stock no. ebc8703.