To express the love of two lovers by a marriage of complementary colors, their mingling and opposition, the mysterious vibration of kindred tones. To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light one against a somber background . . . —September 1888

The best pictures, and from a technical point of view, the most complete, seen from nearby, are but patches of color side by side, and only make an effect at a certain distance. —November 1885

Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, in order to express myself, more forcefully. —August 1888

It's . . . color that suggests ardor, temperament, any kind of emotion. —September 1888

I should like to paint the portrait of an artist friend . . . Behind the head, instead of painting the ordinary wall of the mean room, I paint infinity, a plain background of the richest blue . . . and the bright head against the rich blue background gets a mysterious effect, like a star in the sky, in the depths of azure. —August 1888

It's mental exercise to balance the six essential colors—red—blue—yellow—orange—violet—green—it takes work and dry calculation . . . —July 1888

So I have tried to express, as it were, the powers of darkness in a low public house, by soft . . . green and malachite, contrasting with yellow-green and harsh blue-greens, and all this in an atmosphere like a devil's furnace, of pale sulphur. —September 1888

I am working on a portrait of mother because the black and white photograph annoys me so. That of mother . . . will be an ashen gray against a green background, the dress carmine . . . I don't know if it will be like her, but I want to give the impression of blonde coloring . . . it will again be in very thick impasto. —October 1888, Arles