--- 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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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=575ad2d6-7bec-4e94-ab17-b6d03f45780c&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) 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"}}]}] ```