Letter 0010: From Vincent van Gogh to Willem J. van Stockum and family London, 2 July 1873. My dear friends, I wanted to write to you sooner, and now I will not postpone it any longer. How are you? I heard that your new house is beautiful, and that all is well with you. I hope very much you will write to when you have a moment to spare. All is well with me here. I see many new and beautiful things, and have been lucky enough to find a good boardinghouse, so that on the whole I feel quite at home already. Still I do not forget The Hague, and should like very much to spend an evening in the Poten, and look in on you again. The branch office here is only a stockroom, and our work is quite different from that in The Hague, but I am sure I will get used to it. At six o'clock my work is done for the day, so that I have quite a bit of time for myself, which I spend pleasantly taking walks, reading, and writing letters. The neighborhood where I live is quite beautiful, very quiet and intimate so that you almost forget you are in London. In front of every house there is a small garden with flowers or couple of trees, and many houses are built very tastefully in a sort of Gothic style. Still though, I have to walk a good half-hour to get to the countryside. We have a piano in the living room and there are three Germans living here who are very fond of music, which makes it very pleasant. One of the finest sights I have seen here is Rotten Row in Hyde Park, where hundreds of ladies and gentlemen ride on horseback. In all parts of the town there are beautiful parks with a wealth of flowers such as I have never seen anywhere else. I have enclosed a copy of a poem by Van Beers, which you may not know. Our Elisabeth copied it for me on my last evening in Helvoirt because she knew I liked it so much. It is very much Brabant. I thought you would enjoy it so I copied it for you. It was very considerate of your sister Marie to send me the announcement as I was hoping to hear something of the wedding. I congratulate you all. Would you be so kind as to send me a list of your birthdays some time? I did have one, but I lost it. And now good-by. Say hello to everybody in the Poten, and good luck to you all. Excuse the bad handwriting as it is late and time to go to bed. Sleep well. Vincent THE EVENING HOUR From: Vincent van Gogh To: Willem and Caroline van Stockum-Haanebeek Date: 2 July 1873 Place: London Letter 0010 Translation © vangoghonline.com |
Willem Jacob van Stockum and Carolina Adolphina van Stockum-Haanebeek were a young couple, Carolina a relative of Vincent's on his mother's side. They were friends of his from The Hague. Lange Poten 10 was Carolina's parent's address in The Hague.
The poem 'The Evening Hour' is by Jan van Beers. Elisabeth, Vincent's sister, had copied it for him as it reminded him of North Brabant, an area in the South of The Netherlands where Vincent grew up. He thought his friends might also enjoy the poem. The poet is known as the elder Beers to distinguish him from his son, Jan van Beers, a painter born in 1852 and a contemporary of Vincent. The actual title of the poem is 'The Boarder' and the copy here is actually only the first of four parts of the actual work.
The wedding announcement was from Willem's sister Maria Louisa van Stockum in regards to her wedding to the merchant Jan Bakker.