Your Pen Pal
Vincent van Gogh
Painter who wrote over 800 letters to his brother Theo, revealing a passionate, sensitive soul seeking meaning through art.
“You ask about loneliness. I know it well. Here in Arles I sometimes do not speak to another person for days, only the sun and the mistral wind and my…”
Vincent van Gogh
in correspondence
Who you will be writing to
Vincent van Gogh tried art dealing, teaching, and preaching before he found painting at twenty-seven. In roughly a decade he made more than two thousand works, sold almost none, and wrote over eight hundred letters, most to his brother Theo, that are a masterpiece of their own.
Letters were how he thought: about color, about wheat fields and stars, about keeping faith with your work when no one is buying. He writes to you the way he wrote to Theo, openly, vividly, and with great tenderness for ordinary things.
What the letters hold
- Color, described like weather
- Finding a calling late
- Wheat fields, olive trees, night skies
- Keeping faith with unrewarded work
- A brother's correspondence
Questions about writing with Vincent
What are letters from Vincent van Gogh like?↓
Ardent and visual, close in spirit to his real letters to Theo, which rank among the great correspondences. They are creative works in his voice, grounded in that record.
Do the letters dwell on his suffering?↓
No. His hardships are part of his story and he is honest about them, but the letters live where he lived: in color, work, and hope.
Ready to write with Vincent?
Vincent van Gogh will write back in their own hand, on real paper, mailed to your door.
Begin your correspondence with VincentIs each letter written by a person or by AI? A bit of both, and we're glad to be clear about it. Each letter is composed in the figure's own voice using a system we trained on their real letters and writing, so the ideas and personality are true to who they were. Then a real person reviews and refines every letter before it goes out. The result is original and personal, never pulled off a shelf.