It is odd, just when I was making that copy of the "Pieta" by Delacroix, I found where that canvas has gone. It belongs to a queen of Hungary, or of some other country thereabouts, who has written poems under the name of Carmen Sylva. The article mentioning her and the picture was by Pierre Loti, and he made you feel that this Carmen Sylva as a person was even more touching than what she wrote—and yet she wrote things like this: a childless woman is like a bell without a clapper—the sound of the bronze would perhaps be beautiful, but no one will ever hear it.
     Vincent van Gogh
     Letter to Theo,  Saint-Rémy, 19 September 1889 The Vincent van Gogh Gallery