
Good Morning, Mr Radell!
I’m wondering if Bonjour, Monsieur Corbet was the first iteration of this theme and we know Van Gogh did see it because he visited the Bruyas Collection (as he mentions in the letters, but not that particular painting.)
Van Gogh did not portray himself with the sass that Courbet had, nor with the patron either: his painter is a workman very like a sower.
He wrote, “there’s a quick sketch I made of myself laden with boxes, sticks, a canvas, on the sunny Tarascon road.”*
I’m touched by Radell’s empathy, for the search, the uncertainty, the burden, the loneliness — and for the bravery in going out to paint the world, sans patron, of course.
—CNQ
*726: to Theo Van Gogh, Arles, Monday,17 or Tuesday,18 December, 1888









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