IMPOSSIBLY RARE MANUSCRIPT HANDWRITTEN BY VINCENT VAN GOGH
VAN GOGH, Vincent (1853-1890). Virtually unheard of on the market, this autograph manuscript in the hand of Van Gogh features transcriptions of Biblical texts in Dutch and English, comprising (recto) metrical versions of Psalms 91 (lines 1-14, ‘Hij, die op Gods bescherming wacht’) and 42 (lines 1-13, ‘’t Hijgend hert, der jagt ontkomen’), in Dutch, and (verso) 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 (‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels…’) and 2 Corinthians 6:10 (the first phrase only, ‘As being sorrowful yet always rejoicing’), in English; n.p., n.d. [perhaps Dordrecht, early 1877].
In Dutch and English. On an oblong fragment, 63 x 185mm, cut down from a larger leaf. Custom chemise and box.
Biblical transcriptions from Van Gogh’s early years, at the height of his religious conviction. The psalms in Dutch are transcribed from the popular rhymed versions published in the 1773 Psalmberijming. The Biblical transcriptions are from the King James Bible (with one or two minor differences). Van Gogh cited the verse ‘as being sorrowful yet always rejoicing’ in a letter to Theo on 31 October 1876 when he was living in Isleworth (on the Thames west of London), where he had been hired as an assistant to the Methodist minister, Thomas Slade-Jones. The present transcriptions may date from early the following year, when he was unhappily working at a bookshop in Dordrecht and whiled away the time making Biblical transcriptions in English, French and German.
This manuscript represents the rarest of treasures.
