Was Van Gogh self-critical?

Vincent van Gogh could be very content with his own paintings, for example with The Potato Eaters and The Bedroom. On his path to creating masterpieces Van Gogh was often artistically very self-critical though. His paintings would not be suitable for selling and looking back in 1883 he found his early years as a painter ‘rubbish’.

Even at the end of his career in 1889, after he had been successful on highly respected expositions, he regarded his now world famous Starry Night a failure.

Was it this self-criticism that made him a perfectionist? Did it give him the drive to make more than 900 paintings, 1100 drawings and write over 2000 letters? Vincent was always trying to improve and hopeful to one day succeed as an artist. If only he knew..

Today 139 years ago, on 12 or 13 November 1883,

Vincent van Gogh wrote to Theo from Nieuw-Amsterdam:

"Well, brother, you know I’d promised Wisselingh that I’d show him a few studies from Drenthe before the winter. I’m sending 6 studies off today; would you be so good as to show them to him when you get a chance, by way of a small sign of life? Though of course I don’t think that they’d be suitable for selling.”

Two Women working in the Peat was probably in this batch.

Two Women working in the Peat
Nieuw-Amsterdam, 1883
Oil on canvas
27,8 x 36,5 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

You may also like to read:

• How then did Starry Night become so famous?

Van Gogh's 'Two Women working in the Peat'

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