Letter 06/14/1883 - by Vincent van Gogh

This is now the composition of the garbage dump. I don't know if you can make anything of it. In front are women emptying waste bins, behind them are the sheds where the garbage is kept, and the men working with wheelbarrows, etc.

The first sketch I made of this was rather different; there were two fellows in the foreground with sou'westers, which they often wear in bad weather, and the group of women was more shaded.

But that light effect is really there, as the light from above falls on the figures that are on the paths between the sheds. It would be a splendid thing to paint. I think you will understand it all. I wish I could talk to Mauve about it. But perhaps it would be better not to because it does not always help to get advice from someone else, however clever he is. The cleverest people are not always equally clever at explaining things clearly.