VINCENT

Still Life with Scabiosa and Ranunculus  1886

I believe I am justified in concluding, without exaggeration, that physically I shall be able to stand this life, in spite of all, for a few more years, let’s say from six to ten. I’m not going to take any care of myself or avoid excitement and worry; it’s a matter of relative indifference to me how long I live… so I am living like an ignoramus who only knows one thing for certain: I must accomplish the work I have set myself to do in a few years… the world is of hardly any importance to me, except for the fact that I owe it something, which I am morally bound to pay, since I have been wandering about in it for so many years and ought to show my gratitude by bequeathing it a few mementos in the shape of drawings or pictures not undertaken to please any particular tendency but to express sincere human feeling.

— Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter, seven years before his death 

The Mulberry Tree

Detail from Wheat Field with Cypresses