Brothers

I found this poem by Keats. It reminded me of Vincent and Theo.

To My Brother George

Many the wonders I this day have seen:
The sun, when first he kist away the tears
That fill'd the eyes of morn;-the laurell'd peers
Who from the feathery gold of evening lean;-
The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears-
Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears
Must think on what will be, and what has been.
E'en now, dear George, while this for you I write,
Cynthia is from her silken curtains peeping
So scantly, that it seems her bridal night,
And she her half-discover'd revels keeping.
But what, without the social thought of thee,
Would be the wonders of the sky and sea?

In 1889 Van Gogh painted The Bedroom, he said he enormously enjoyed doing this "interior of nothing at all." It has been suggested that he was trying to express his desire for simplicity and familial security. He said "The broad lines of the furniture must again express inviolable rest." Yet, the perspective suggests that the security, the hope for rest, is in a room of anxiety, where one is waiting and confined. The bird's eye view of empty chairs and Van Gogh's own self portrait on the wall suggest how lonely it must have been. The hundreds of pages to Theo are agonizing and brilliant. It is for the Van Gogh brothers as Keats wrote:
But what, without the thought of thee, would be the wonders of the sky and sea?