"And my aim in my life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then, at the end of my life, I hope to pass away, looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, 'Oh, the pictures I might have made!'" – Vincent van Gogh.
'Let them prattle on about technique as much as they like in their pharisaic, hollow, hypocritical terms -- true painters are guided by the consciousness known as sentiment. Their souls, their minds are not there for the brush, the brush is there for their minds' – Vincent van Gogh.
His overriding aim was to express the human spirit.
"[His letters] enable us to know more about Van Gogh's life and mentality than we do of any other artist. The letters form a running commentary on his work, and a human document without parallel." - Dr. Jan Hulsker, one of the world's foremost authorities on the letters of Vincent van Gogh.
That head of his has been occupied with contemporary society's insoluble problems for so long, and he is still battling on with his good-heartedness and boundless energy. His efforts have not been in vain, but he will probably not live to see them come to fruition, for by the time people understand what he is saying in his paintings it will be too late. He is one of the most advanced painters and it is difficult to understand him, even for me who knows him so intimately. His ideas cover so much ground, examining what is humane and how one should look at the world, that one must first free oneself from anything remotely linked to convention to understand what he was trying to say, but I am sure he will be understood later on. It is just hard to say when. - Theo van Gogh to Jo
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