Etten remembers Vincent

In the year 2000 all the people who have known Vincent during his life here have died. In 1926 there were some people still alive who remembered him very well: Benno Stokvis visited Etten-Leur and interviewed some contemporaries.

T he following people have been interviewed by him at Etten in 1926:

  J.A. Oostrijck

Minus, the brother of J.A. Oostrijck « enlarge »

His father was an elder in the church of Clergyman Van Gogh. Vincent used to visit the Oostrijck famlily and drew the interior of the house and the granary. He once made a very good portrait of Mother Oostrijck. Father Oostrijck (see picture) has been painted too: behind the plough on the field. When the sketch was finished Father Oostrijck said Vincent has forgotten to draw the dog! Vincent was willing to add the dog to the drawing. If Vincent liked you, you always could get a sketch from him. He worked a lot in the environment of the village of Etten. The farmers liked him. When he went out to work he often wore a raincoat and a sou'ester. He always carried a little folding-chair with him. When you saw him passing by, he walked, looking straight ahead, not noticing other people. He seemed a little bit strange, without doing strange things. However when he was painting or sketching he did not like to be watched. If you were looking too long at him working, he always asked you to go away. He was not always an easy person ... He was always very open-handed to the poor. Once he gave his own new suit to a beggar. If he did not like a drawing he teared it apart immediately ... When I asked how Mr. Oostrijck how he liked his work he answered: "Everything he made was as accurate as a photograph."

Benno Stokvis, 1926

  A. de Graaf
When I interviewed him his age was 76. At the time clergyman Van Gogh was at Etten he was a sexton in the Protestant Church. Actually he was a carpenter and he made the folding-chair Vincent always had with him when he went out to draw. A sketch for this chair was made by vincent on a board. Using this sketch De Graaf made the chair. Vincent was "a good boy", walking everywhere to make his drawings. He was always busy drawing and he only talked about drawing. he never made jokes, he was quite serious. Clergyman Van Gogh told Mr. de Graaf that "Vincent had such a remarkable spirit" and that he wanted to breed him for the church.

Benno Stokvis, 1926

  Piet Kaufmann

Piet Kaufmann on one of Vincent's sketches « enlarge »

Nowadays quite a sturdy man of 60 years old. He sat as a model for Vincent several times and Vincent mentioned him in a few letters (for example letter 148: "I think I shall find a good model here in Piet Kaufman, the gardener, but I think it will be better to let him pose with a spade or plough or something like that - not here at home, but either in the yard or in his own home or in the field."). Notice the wrong spelling: Kaufman! He remembered Vincent very well. When Kaufmann sat for Vincent he worked for the Van Gogh family as a gardner, he was 17 years old. In the rectory, usually on Saturdays, Vincent made some portraits of him. Kaufmann posed with a rake or a spade. Several times Vincent drew him as a sower, wearing a garment around his shoulders. Lots of hours while was he working: he worked until he had expressed the things he wanted. The maid-servant of the Van Gogh family said that Vincent worked many nights without sleeping. When his mother went downstairs in the morning, she found him often still working. Often he refused to drink coffee. His mother would called him, "Yes, I'm coming," he called back, but he did not show up at all, for more than one hour later. Vincent always walked around the village with a portfolio and a chair under his arms, and held his head a little bit tilted: "He was always in thought." He never saw any person when he walked in the street. "He was a queer fish". Kaufmann recieved several sketches from Vincent as a present but they all got lost at removals. He had sat thirty or fifty times to Vincent.

Benno Stokvis, 1926

  C. Kerstens
HHe said Vincent drew and painted only Protestant people. The artist had some silly manners. He was quite a looner. He had a sturdy body.

Benno Stokvis, 1926