Letter 03/04/1883 - by Vincent van Gogh

It has just got dark, and just for fun I wanted to send you today's drawing, because I have written about it to you. This morning I started on a watercolor of a boy and a girl at a soup kitchen like the one I told you about, with another figure, a woman, in the corner. That watercolor turned out too dingy, which is partly because the paper was not right for the purpose.

Yet I could see how infinitely more suitable the studio is now for color, and I will obviously not leave it at this first attempt. However, this is how I passed the time in the morning, and I spent the afternoon doing a drawing in mountain crayon, the one little piece I had left from this summer. I am enclosing this drawing now. I don't think it is sufficiently finished, but, as a sketch from life, there is perhaps something there of life and of some human sentiment. I'll do better next time.