ALT What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity, an eccentric or an unpleasant person—somebody who has no position in society and never will have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then—even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, which is, in spite of everything, based less on resentment than on love, based more on serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony, and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible force. —Vincent Van Gogh from a letter to his brother, Theo, 1882