That the letters were the product of intense loneliness is in no doubt, for when Van Gogh is actually living with Théo the writing ceases. But as soon as he is once again on his own they continue at a prodigious rate, often amounting to six pages of closely written text. 

"The Yellow House" (1888) 

In all, 819 letters written by Van Gogh survive, the majority of which were addressed to Théo, some to his younger sister Wilemien (Wil),  and others to a handful of artists, including Gauguin, with whom he lived in Arles for nine tempestuous weeks before Gauguin finally stormed out after a row, and Emile Bernard. The row precipitated a crisis: Van Gogh cut off the lobe of his left ear and presented it to a local prostitute in one of the nearby brothels he and Gauguin frequented. Horrified with this unusual gift, the prostitute, Rachel, promptly fainted.

Yet even during his slow and horrifying mental disintegration, words somehow continue to sustain him. No other artist has ever produced such an intimate record-eloquent, revealing and often desperately moving- of his life and his thoughts about art. He vividly "paints" his descriptions with an artist's eye before he ever puts brush to canvas. On first arriving in Arles, he writes a letter to Théo, describing his surroundings thus:

I notice some magnificent plots in red earth planted with vines, with mountains in the background of the most delicate lilac. And the landscape under the snow with the white peaks against the sky as bright as the snow was just like the winter landscapes the Japanese did. 

One learns time and again that both words and images fuelled Van Gogh's imagination equally. "Books and reality and art are the same kind of thing for me." And then, echoing this sentiment, "One has to learn to read, as one has to learn to see and learn to live."