6. Theo van Gogh, 1889
Religious Obsession
After a temporary transfer to the main branch in Paris in rue Chaptal, Vincent returned in early 1875 to London, where he began working for the gallery of Holloway & Sons in Bedford Street, which had been taken over by Goupil & Cie. In mid-May he was back at the Paris branch. He gave detailed accounts of his visits to the Salon, the Louvre and the Musée du Luxembourg, and he described the prints he had hung in his small room in Montmartre, where he became friendly with his housemate, Harry Gladwell. Night after night he read the Bible out loud to this Englishman: ‘We intend to read it all the way through’ (55). Van Gogh became more and more obsessed with Bible study and went to church frequently. The letters written at this time are full of references to Holy Scripture, rhyming psalms, Evangelical hymns and devotional literature. This religious obsession, which lasted for several years, caused him to neglect his work and was one of the reasons for his eventual dismissal from Goupil’s.
In October 1875 the Van Gogh family moved to the village of Etten, where the Reverend Van Gogh had taken a living. Vincent spent Christmas and New Year’s with them there. When he returned to Paris, he heard that Goupil had decided to terminate his contract as of 1 April, partly because he had stayed away too long during the busy time at the end of the year, though another cause of consternation was his attitude to his job. His father was deeply disappointed, and wrote about it in what were, by his standards, very bitter letters to Theo, since the consequences for the family were especially painful: ‘How much he has spurned! What bitter sorrow for Uncle Cent. What a bitter experience. We are glad that we live in relative isolation here and would really like to shut ourselves in. It is an unspeakable sorrow’. Vincent seemed less upset by this loss of face, although he definitely felt guilty. Working in the art trade for six years had indeed taught him a lot, but it had not made him happy or opened up any prospects for a career. His future was now completely up in the air.
The Search for a Calling, 1876–1880
Van Gogh now spent four years attempting—in England, the Netherlands and Belgium—to shape his future. After his dismissal from Goupil & Cie, he travelled in April 1876 to Ramsgate, near London, to work as an assistant teacher at the boarding school for boys run by William Stokes. After a trial period of one month, he was allowed to stay, but without a salary. Shortly afterwards the school—along with Van Gogh—moved to Isleworth. There he enjoyed long walks and took pleasure in the boys’ company, but he soon realized that he would prefer pastoral work, something ‘between minister and missionary, in the suburbs of London among working folk’ (84). Not only that, but he was urgently in need of a steady income.
In July he went to work at another boarding school in Isleworth, which was run by the Methodist minister Thomas Slade-Jones. In this period Vincent’s letters to Theo became longer and longer, owing to serious digressions and an abundance of biblical quotations. His increasing interest in religion was accompanied by more moralistic reading, his favourites being George Eliot’s Scenes of Clerical Life and Felix Holt, John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Thomas a Kempis’s De imitatione Christi. To his immense satisfaction he was given his first opportunity to deliver a sermon at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Richmond in October. The sermon, which he copied out for Theo and enclosed in a letter, compared life to a pilgrimage (96). Shortly after this he became a lay preacher at the Congregational Church in Turnham Green, and also taught at their Sunday school, but as an unpaid volunteer. While he was home for Christmas—as always, a time for reflection, when they all came together in a veritable conclave—the family discussed Vincent’s limited prospects in England, and it was decided that he would stay in the Netherlands.
Uncle Vincent arranged a job for him as a clerk-cum-factotum for Blussé & Van Braam, a bookseller in Dordrecht. In this period his religious fanaticism started to get out of hand. His letters were now full of devotional texts and musings about his desire to become a preacher; numerous biblical prints decorated the walls of his room; and he attended one church service after another, exploring a wide variety of denominations. A line from Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians—‘sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing’—became a motto that he wore like ‘a good cloak in the storm of life’ (109).
Yet Another Failure
Van Gogh’s struggle with the world was bound up with his own internal struggle about his place in that world. He dreamed of a vocation in the church, spreading the Word as a preacher, like his father. He viewed striving to achieve that goal as a means of freeing himself from the ‘torrent of reproaches’ that he had ‘heard and felt’ (106). Influenced by his Calvinist upbringing, he spoke more than once of the conscience as man’s infallible, God-given moral compass. But however conscientiously he tried to live his life, somehow he could not find the right path. His work at the bookshop was merely a temporary solution; the family continued to search for a suitable situation for him. Uncle Cent, who had been so supportive up to now, stopped trying to help when it became apparent that his nephew was serious about becoming a preacher.
Vincent—who had no high school diploma—approached other uncles in Amsterdam for suggestions and help in preparing himself to study theology. His family was by no means convinced that this was his true calling, and they worried about his unstable mental state. Even so, Vincent, in good spirits, moved in May 1877 to Amsterdam, where he went to live with one of his father’s brothers, Uncle Jan van Gogh, director of the naval dockyard. A maternal uncle, the minister Johannes Stricker, took it upon himself to supervise Vincent’s studies.
Preparing for the university entrance exam proved extremely difficult for Vincent. As he so often did, he compensated for his lack of ability by taking long walks and writing about them in letters full of long, evocative passages. No matter how hard he tried to persevere in his studies, he became more and more downcast and disheartened. He wrote to Theo that his head was numb and burning and his thoughts confused. Once again he realized that he had failed in the task he had set himself. Years later he would look back on his year in Amsterdam as ‘the worst time’ he had ever been through (154). Dejected and defeated, he returned to his parents’ house in Etten, hoping that he might still become a Sunday-school teacher.
Evangelist in the Borinage
In July 1878 Vincent went to Brussels in the company of his father and the Reverend Slade-Jones to discuss his admission to a Flemish training college for evangelists. He was given a three-month trial period and sent to work in Laken, where he lived with a board member’s family. He was not accepted for the training course, however, and left in early December 1878 for the Borinage, the mining region of Belgium, to look for evangelization work. In mid-January 1879 he was given a six-month appointment as a lay preacher in Wasmes, a village near Mons. His tasks included giving Bible readings, teaching children and visiting the sick. Van Gogh was confronted with real poverty and squalor, but he devoted himself wholeheartedly to caring for the sick and injured. He identified so much with the poor that he gave away all his possessions and lived in a small hut, where he slept on the ground.
This exaggerated display of humility was one reason for the evangelization committee’s dissatisfaction with him, and they also judged him to be lacking in both the gift of speech and the organizational skills necessary to hold gatherings at which the congregation could be taught the Gospel. His appointment was terminated, and in August he left for the nearby village of Cuesmes, where he went to live with an evangelist. Impressed by this ‘singular, remarkable and picturesque region of the country’ (150), he concentrated more and more on drawing. For years he had drawn for his own pleasure, and had occasionally included sketches in his letters. Now, however, drawing—alongside writing—became an increasingly important way of capturing his impressions in images: ‘Often sit up drawing until late at night to have some keepsakes and to strengthen thoughts that automatically spring to mind upon seeing the things’ (153).
Theo went to v
isit him, and they discussed Vincent’s future. Feelings must have run high during this talk, because immediately after Theo’s departure, Vincent defended himself in a letter that reveals the fears and differences of opinion that were seriously undermining his relations with Theo and the rest of the family (154). The rift between the brothers ultimately led them to stop corresponding for nearly a year. Vincent broke the silence with a cri de coeur in which he expressed himself with exceptional force. He felt like a caged bird, a good-for-nothing, but he wanted to make himself useful and find his vocation in life, and he accepted the help Theo was offering him (155).
Vincent had become estranged from his parents too. As early as 1875 they had discussed Vincent’s ‘otherness’ and worried about his religious fanaticism. When he was rejected for the training course in evangelization, they urged him to take a different path and try a practical occupation. In their eyes he remained ‘obstinate and pigheaded’, however, and refused to take their advice. During his time in the Borinage, Vincent dreaded returning home, but he nevertheless paid two short visits to his parents. They found his behaviour, which bordered on the autistic (as it would be called nowadays), so alarming that his father talked openly about having him committed to the psychiatric hospital in Geel in Belgium, but this idea met with fierce resistance from Vincent.
Now that their eldest son had been found wanting, it was Theo’s responsibility to uphold the family honour. In November 1879 he had been given a permanent position with Goupil & Cie in Paris, so he was now able to contribute to his brother’s upkeep. Vincent received his first allowance from Theo in March 1880. He had been doing more drawing, and Theo began urging him to make art his profession. Vincent decided to give it a try; this choice proved definitive.
Struggle and Passion for Work: Van Gogh’s Beginnings as an Artist, 1880–1883
Now that he had resolved to pursue an artistic career, Van Gogh threw himself passionately into a self-devised programme of study. Hoping to earn a living as an illustrator, he turned his full attention to drawing. He knew that he had to start from scratch, learning as much as possible about materials, perspective, proportion and anatomy. He read handbooks and worked from morning to night, making copies after prints and from the examples in the drawing course Theo had sent him. His small room in Cuesmes was far from ideal as a studio, however. This lack of space, as well as a growing need to be near museums and artists, prompted him to move to Brussels in October 1880. Acting on the advice of the painter Willem Roelofs—whom Theo had advised him to visit—Van Gogh enrolled at the art academy for the course Drawing from the Antique. After a month he had had enough: no doubt he had been forced to endure much criticism of his under-developed technique and limited knowledge of anatomy and perspective. As a result of that experience, he was filled with loathing for academic instruction—a subject that would crop up often in his letters—and believed even more strongly that an artist’s means of expression was more important than technique. In the meantime he had become acquainted with Anthon van Rappard, a Dutch artist who suggested that Vincent come and draw in his spacious studio in Brussels (fig. 7). The two men became friends, and when Van Gogh returned to the Netherlands, they struck up a lively correspondence.
7. Anthon van Rappard, c. 1880
At the end of April 1881 Vincent again moved in with his parents in Etten, where he stayed until Christmas. He worked and slept in a room in the annex built on to his parents’ house. In these months he practised drawing landscapes and figures at work, modelled upon the people from the village who posed for him. During a short stay in The Hague, he visited museums and exhibitions—not for the first time, but now as an artist—and received welcome advice from Anton Mauve, a successful painter of the Hague School who was married to Van Gogh’s cousin, Jet Carbentus. Van Gogh was in his element; quoting a phrase used by Mauve, he observed with satisfaction that ‘the factory is in full swing’ (172).
Escalating Tension
In the summer of 1881 Kee Vos-Stricker—Uncle Stricker’s daughter, who had recently been widowed—came to stay at the parsonage in Etten (fig. 8). Van Gogh fell passionately in love with her. She told him in no uncertain terms that she could never return his feelings, but he persisted and, blinded by desire, caused his family a great deal of embarrassment. Vincent’s father warned him that such ‘indelicate and untimely’ behaviour jeopardized their family ties (185). But Vincent was so insensitive to the opinions and feelings of his parents that they finally asked him to move out. He then decided to work for a while with Mauve in The Hague; it was in Mauve’s studio, in fact, that he made his first oil studies and learned the rudiments of watercolour. When Van Gogh returned to Etten after three weeks, he was full of new plans and intended to look for a large studio in the vicinity, but after only a couple of days he had another serious clash with his father. Swearing that he wanted nothing more to do with religion, he left that same day for The Hague.
8. Kee Vos-Stricker and her son Jan, c. 1881
A New Step
In The Hague, Vincent soon found lodgings in Schenkweg, at the edge of the city. He was still suffering from the negative reactions to his love for Kee, and abhorred his family’s shortsightedness. Even though Theo blamed Vincent, saying that his stubbornness was making things unnecessarily difficult for their parents, he continued to support him. In February 1881 Theo was appointed manager of Goupil’s branch on the boulevard Montmartre in Paris (later taken over by Boussod, Valadon & Cie), and from then on he assumed responsibility for Vincent’s expenses. Theo, who made a good living throughout Vincent’s artistic career, gave some fifteen percent of his income to his brother. The reason for Vincent’s frequent financial straits was his tendency to spend money much too easily, a habit that was inseparable from his unrelenting passion for work: he was always running out of drawing and painting materials; he needed models, who had to be paid for posing; and he was determined to install himself in adequate living and working quarters every time he moved house. Naturally this was also true of his accommodation in Schenkweg, where he immediately set up a studio.
His early days in The Hague, then the cultural capital of the Netherlands, started off well: he received advice and support from Tersteeg, his former boss at Goupil’s, and Mauve introduced him at the painters’ society Pulchri, the ideal place to draw from a model and meet other artists. He became acquainted with the young artists George Breitner and Théophile de Bock. Vincent was also delighted to receive from his uncle Cor van Gogh his first paid commission, which was followed by a second, both for views of The Hague.
At the end of January 1882 Vincent met Sien Hoornik, a pregnant prostitute who became his regular model. Sien’s mother and daughter also posed for him frequently, at first for a fee, and later, when he and Sien became lovers, for free. Together with Breitner, he went to sketch in soup kitchens and railway station waiting rooms. His favourite subjects were workers and impoverished people: ‘I feel that my work lies in the heart of the people, that I must keep close to the ground, that I must delve deeply into life and must get ahead by coping with great cares and difficulties’ (226). Van Gogh hoped that his art would reach ordinary folk; he wanted to make figures ‘from the people for the people’ (294). Because he was still toying with the idea of becoming an illustrator, he began to collect illustrated magazines. The prints in these magazines—wood engravings made by professional engravers after drawings by well-known artists—moved him with their realism, immediacy and unpolished technique. He collected hundreds of them, which he cut out, ordered by subject, and put into folders. Vincent was particularly fond of prints with ‘soul’ and ‘character’. He exchanged prints with Van Rappard, and their letters contained long discussions about artistic and technical questions.
It was also Van Rappard who sent Vincent Alfred Sensier’s book on the French painter Jean-François Millet. This highly romanticized biography of the Barbizon painter who led a simple life among peasants had a decisive influence on Van Gogh’s approach to art. He
declared ‘Père Millet’ to be his mentor, and many of the artist’s utterances became his mottos.
Family Life
After a couple of weeks in a hospital, where he was treated for venereal disease, Van Gogh moved in July 1882 to a better and more spacious studio farther down the street. Two weeks later he was joined by Sien, her five-year-old daughter, Maria, and her newborn son, Willem. For as long as they were living together, Van Gogh defended time and again his decision to live with Sien, appealing to Jules Michelet’s moral and didactic treatises on women, love and marriage. Naturally their cohabitation met with strong disapproval from the conservative Van Gogh family.
Vincent, however, had complete disregard for the standards of behaviour befitting his station. In this period he dressed like a member of the working class, to the dismay of Theo and the rest of the family. His influential uncle Cent viewed a couple living together outside of marriage as a gross breach of social decorum and a disgrace from which the entire family suffered. Nor could he accept the fact that Sien and her children were also profiting from Theo’s generosity.
Despite their disapproval, Vincent’s parents did not cut him off completely: in the autumn of 1883 they sent him not only a pair of trousers and a winter jacket, but also a woman’s coat—a sign that they did not reject Sien entirely, despite their serious reservations. In the meantime Van Gogh was living happily in his modest household. His letters reveal his version of reality: a man is duty-bound to help a fallen woman, and it stands to reason that this will cost money. His idea of respectability was obviously very different from that of most people of his background.
Ever Yours Page 2