1 October
These last few days I’ve done almost nothing but watercolours. A scratch of a large one is enclosed. You may remember Mooijman’s state lottery office at the beginning of Spuistraat. I passed it one rainy morning when a throng of people were standing there waiting to get lottery tickets. For the most part they were old women and the sort of people of whom it’s impossible to say what they do or how they live, but who evidently potter along and fret and get on with life.
Of course, viewed superficially, a crowd of folk who evidently attach so much importance to ‘Draw today’ is something that almost makes you and me laugh, because we’re not in the least bit interested in the lottery. But the group of people – and their waiting expression – struck me, and it took on a larger, deeper meaning for me while I was working on it than in the first moment It becomes more meaningful, I believe, if one thinks of it as the poor and money.
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It’s interesting to see parallels between Vincent’s time and ours. Many people still queue patiently to buy lottery tickets in the hope to become overnight millionaires, or at least able to pay off loans. Vincent’s empathy with the poor really comes across to us here.