Vincent in Paris
(Spring 1887)
 

I don’t want to be one of the melancholics or those who become sour and bitter and morbid. To understand all is to forgive all,18 and I believe that if we knew everything we’d arrive at a certain serenity. Now having this serenity as much as possible, even when one knows — little — nothing — for certain, is perhaps a better remedy against all ills than what’s sold in the chemist’s. A lot comes of its own accord, one grows and develops of one’s own accord.

From a letter to his sister, Willemien van Gogh, Paris, late October 1887

Horse Chestnut Tree in Blossom
May 1887
Oil on canvas
55,8 x 56,5
Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0126V1962