Self-Portrait (1887).
Vincent Van Gogh’s close and professionally fruitful relationship with his art dealer brother, Theo, is well known. But Vincent also had three sisters Lies, Anna, and Willemien with whom he shared dynamic, yet under-recognized correspondences throughout his life. In 1881, Vincent told Theo he had been in “constant” contact with Willemien, who also had artistic aspirations and suffered from mental health problems. Read more about Vincent and Willemien’s relationship in the excerpt that follows.
“My dear sister, Thank you very much for your letter, which I had been looking forward to. I’m reluctant to give in to my inclination to write to you often or inveigle you to do so. All this correspondence doesn’t always help to buttress those of us of a nervous disposition when we are immersed in the kind of melancholy you were referring to in your letter and which I too experience now and again.” Vincent composed this letter to Willemien over th