Letter 6, page 5

Van Gogh deeply felt the need for a lively dialogue and collaboration among artists. He argued that for modern art to rival, for example, the accomplishments of ancient Greek sculptors, artists should work collectively on a shared idea, since the "paintings that ought to be made . . . exceed the power of an isolated individual." Included in this letter is a sketch of a still life with a blue enameled coffeepot. Bernard would have recognized it as an homage to his own painting made six months earlier while the two artists were in Paris. The sketch of the street in Saintes-Maries documents his freshly painted canvas, with copious notations of the pairs of complementary colors he employed.

Upon his return from an intensely productive journey to the seaside town of Saintes-Maries, van Gogh sent this letter with a sheet of sketches enclosed to Bernard. The care he took with the drawings shows that he was eager to communicate the excitement of his work resulting from the trip. Inspired by the vibrant and constantly changing colors of the Mediterrenean, he described the beached fishing boats as being "so pretty in shape and color that one thought of flowers." He included a quick sketch of the boats along with outlines of another seascape, and two landscapes he was working on. In the letter he continued to discuss his theories about color and the use of black and white, adding a sketch of a woman in a black and white checked dress to emphasize the need to use such pigments boldly. He then jotted down a small sketch of one of the local cottages that became the subject for several drawings and paintings.