--- title: Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers description: In a letter to his brother, van Gogh shines light on his independent mind canonical: https://time.com/3818311/vincent-van-gogh-idlers/ author: Shane Parrish article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-03T11:00:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:21:34.193Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers og:description: In a letter to his brother, van Gogh shines light on his independent mind og:url: https://time.com/3818311/vincent-van-gogh-idlers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0915a9b28b21d6df/6987eaa735ba6f749ec0ad14/van-gogh.jpg?branch=production&width=372&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 372 og:image:height: 209 og:image:alt: Self-Portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers twitter:description: In a letter to his brother, van Gogh shines light on his independent mind twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0915a9b28b21d6df/6987eaa735ba6f749ec0ad14/van-gogh.jpg?branch=production&width=372&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Jun 3, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Self-Portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 Self-Portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 De Agostini Picture Library—Getty Images by [Shane Parrish](https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/) ## Shane Parrish Jun 3, 2015 11:00 AM UTC The anthology [Ever Yours: The Essential Letters](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300209479/farnamstreet-20), contains 265 of Vincent van Gogh’s letters, which is nearly a third of all the surviving letters he penned. In a long and winding letter to his brother Theo dated Thursday, 24 June 1880, van Gogh shines light on his independent mind. --- > “” --- Later, in the same letter, he defines two types of idlers. --- > “” --- [Ever Yours: The Essential Letters](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300209479/farnamstreet-20) sheds light on the turbulent and beautiful life of history’s greatest luminaries. **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Farnam Street_**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/)**_._** **Join over 50,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/)**.** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3818311/vincent-van-gogh-idlers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3818311/vincent-van-gogh-idlers/"},"headline":"Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers","datePublished":"2015-06-03T11:00:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:21:34.193Z","description":"In a letter to his brother, van Gogh shines light on his independent mind","url":"https://time.com/3818311/vincent-van-gogh-idlers/","keywords":["Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0915a9b28b21d6df/6987eaa735ba6f749ec0ad14/van-gogh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shane Parrish","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/shane-parrish/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0915a9b28b21d6df/6987eaa735ba6f749ec0ad14/van-gogh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Self-Portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889","caption":"Self-Portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889","creditText":"De Agostini Picture Library—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/psychology/","name":"Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3818311/vincent-van-gogh-idlers/","name":"Vincent van Gogh on the Two Types of Idlers"}}]}] ```