The Starry Night and the Cypress
→ Theo van Gogh
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. I have been working on a new painting representing a starry night.
Creative Struggles
3 items in this collection
The creative process is rarely smooth or predictable. Behind every masterpiece lie moments of doubt, frustration, and breakthrough. These letters capture the raw honesty of artists grappling with their work – van Gogh’s passionate struggles with painting, Mozart’s reflections on musical expression, and Sylvia Plath’s fierce determination to write.
Here you’ll find the private conversations of creators with themselves and their closest confidants, revealing the universal challenges of bringing something new into the world. These letters remind us that great art is born not just from inspiration, but from persistence through struggle.
Letter to Theo about Health and Art
→ Theo van Gogh
People matter more than things, and the more trouble I take over pictures, the more pictures in themselves leave me cold. I would far rather give up painting than see you killing yourself to make money.
Letter to Theo about Theological Studies
→ Theo van Gogh
I long to write to you again, perhaps it will be a rather long time before we see each other. Polish it all the time, and polish it again—work, take pains, that is what one must do.