In November 80,Vincent met Van Rappard thanks toTheo, a young Dutch painter with whom he would develop a true friendship.
Though they had different backgrounds and personalities, they would write long letters to each other, where they talked mainly about technics, shared their skills and engravings they both collected.
Some time later, Van Rappard would come to his help – he was from a well-off family who supported him- by lending him some money to achieve his lithographs.
Whenever Vincent quarelled with his brother, he was his confident, listening to his despairs.
A serious conflict would oppose them when Vincent sent him a lithograph of his latest work, “the Potato Eaters”, of which he was very proud.
Van Rappard harshly criticized that work for its flaws of perspective or of drawing. Vincent resented it, and asked him to retract his words “without conditions”. After swapping some scathing letters, Rappard gave in and retracted his words. But their friendship tremendously suffered from it...and would not last long.