information  

This is the main section of our website. Here you can find lots of 
information about Van Gogh's stay at Etten. Also there are some other 
things like an art course, information about our schoolproject (we made 
really huge reproductions of famous paintings and placed them along the 
highway), also the things we do/did at Etten to remember Van Gogh and 
much more... 

  van gogh in etten
General information about his stay at Etten. This page is divided in 
Van Gogh family at Etten, how did Van Gogh come to Etten, Vincent's 
stay at Etten, influences and his work at Etten. 

        go to: van gogh in etten »


 his life
A timeline about Van Gogh's life. It goes from the 30th of March 1853, 
when he was born, to the 29th of July 1890, when he commits suicide. 

        go to: his life »


  letters
Vincent wrote a lot of famous letters to his brother Theo. This page contains 
some of them Vincent wrote at Etten. 

        go to: letters »


  art course
You can draw really realistic. Not true? Well, follow this art course first 
and then I talk to you later. Succes! 

        go to: art course »


  our schoolproject
There was a great schoolproject at Etten-Leur. We made some huge 
reproductions of some of Vincent's famous paintings and exposed them... 
... along the highway! 

        go to: our schoolproject »


  multimedia
Multimedia extra's along with this site. News fragments, recordings of 
our schoolproject and other cool stuff dealing with Van Gogh. 

        go to: multimedia »



  links
Our fine selection of Van Gogh sites on the World Wide Web. Do you know 
some great sites we don't know? Feel free to tell us. 

        go to: links »

VAN GOGH IN ETTEN  

What most people know about this painter is that he was quite a weird 
person who cut his ear off and who made very remarkable, very expensive 
paintings. But if this is all you know about him, you do him wrong ...

For Vincent van Gogh painting was not only showing the world around as 
you can see it (objectively), but making visible the world as he saw it 
and experienced it (subjectively). As a painter van Gogh used his eyes, 
his hands and ... his heart.

As an artist he was only ten years active, but in that time he made 
approximately 900 paintings and much more drawings. When you see his 
work you'll be able to recognize a man who was totally devoted to the 
art of painting and drawing. He absorbed all the techniques and styles 
of painting and made lots of experiments to develop his own style of 
working. He was inspired by Holbein, a German painter of the early 
renaissance, the romantic realism of Millet, who he called his father, 
the impressionism, the pointillism, the style of his brother in art 
Gauguin, and the rhythm of colors and lines of the Japanese woodcuts 
which were very popular in Europe at the end of the 19th century. All 
this and more, he used to make his paintings, trying to show us how he 
saw and experienced things of life. That's why it is quite difficult to 
place him in a trend. Yet his paintings are easy to recognize because of 
his way of painting: heavy strokes, brilliant flaming colors and 
significant outlines, as seen in this painting.

Vincent was a self-taught man, an autodidact. He taught himself how to 
paint and to draw, just by doing it and just to look at everything he 
painted or drew with great respect and love.
For six months Vincent lived at Etten where his father was a clergyman. 
In the environment of Etten and St. Willebrord Vincent made lots of 
sketches of the landscape and of the people living there. When he moves 
to The Hague he starts painting, first with dark brown, grey, black and 
ochre colors, later on in France under influence of the different light 
and colors he makes brighter and more colorful paintings and he develops 
his own famous style. During his life he gets no recognition as a painter. 
Just after his death, he gets the fame he deserves. 

van gogh family at etten  

Who were part of the Van Gogh family? 

Vincents father, Theo Van Gogh, has been born in 1822 and became a 
clergyman. He grew up at Breda in the south of the Netherlands. 
His wife, Anna Carbentus was three years older. On the moment the 
Van Gogh family moves to Etten, clergyman Van Gogh is 53 years old. 
His oldest sons Vincent and Theo are working then already at the 
Goupil Art trade company, his daughters Anna and Lies have left the 
parental home too and are working in Tiel (in the middle of 
the Netherlands) and in England. Just the youngsters son Cor 
(only 8 years old) and daughter Willemien (13 years) are still 
living with their parents. The Van Gogh family is going to live 
in the old rectory (built in 1659) near the church at the 
Roosendaalseweg. They live there quiet and peaceful, near the centre 
of Etten, but also in the neighbourhood of nature: the woods and 
the moor. On the 22th of october 1875 the Van Gogh family has been 
registered in the register of population of Etten en Leur. 

a love affair at etten  

During his stay at Etten Vincent feels often misunderstood by his 
parents. 

He feels this misunderstanding very strong, when he falls in love 
with his niece Kee Vos- Stricker. In 1878 she became a widow and 
in the summer she stays at Etten with her 8 years old son Johannes. 
Vincent does not want to look back at the difficult periods that 
lay behind him. She, on the contrary, is filled too long with grief 
according to Vincent.. When he declares his love to her, she rejects 
him with the words:"no, no, never!" Vincent does not put up with 
that refusal and he keeps on writing her letters after her departure 
from Etten. He longs to talk about his feelings, but his father 
refuses and settles the question saying that Vincents proposal is 
"premature and indelicate ". His mother tries to cheer him up with 
words of comfort. At the end of november Vincent travels to Amsterdam, 
where Kee is living, and he hopes to be able to change her opinion. 
During 3 days he keeps on visiting the house of Kee and her parents 
but they refuse to give him admission to their daughter. Vincent is 
very disappointed and sad, and travels from Amsterdam to The Hague 
where he stays for a few weeks with Mauve and his wife Jet. 

sketching locations  

Vincent has been sketching at several locations in and near Etten. 
Do these places still exist? And how are the existing places looking 
today? 

At Etten-Leur there are still a few locations to find where Vincent 
has been sketching. In his letters he calls those places by name. 
However most of these locations have been disappeared: the old 
rectory, the windmill at the Roosendaalseweg, the pollard-willows 
at the Leursestraatje, the moor, its all gone ... And in the Liesbos 
(a wood) and at the Pagnevaart the location where he made his 
drawings is not to be located anymore. At this moment there are 
only three places to recognize where Vincent surely has been 
sketching: The Leursestraatje, seen from the Kaufmannhouse, with 
a view on the catholic Saint Lambert church, the Moeierboom 
(a big tree) on the Marketplace, and the Protestant Church.

how did van gogh come to etten  

At the end of April, 1881, Vincent comes to Etten to live with his 
parents. On the 18th of August he is registered as a resident of 
Etten. He fills in as his profession: a painter. 

Vincent is of good heart. In the months to come, he makes a lot 
of drawings. He likes to work on Ingres-paper, a grey colored 
kind of paper. In August Vincent visits for the first time his 
cousin by marriage Anton Mauve (1838-1888) at The Hague. Mauve 
is known as a painter of landscapes, and the sea at Scheveningen, 
near The Hague. Later he will be remembered as one of the leading 
figures of the School of The Hague, a Dutch variant of Impressionism. 
On the advice of Mauve, Vincent starts to draw, back at Etten, 
with crayons of Conte de Paris, and makes tones in his drawings 
with thinned black and sepia ink with brushes. When it is too 
dirty to work outside, Vincent practices drawing by copying paintings 
and engravings by Jean Millet, one of the first French painters, 
painting farmers and labourers. He also copies from a late-medieval 
German painter, Hans Holbein, like this one. He practiced on 
portraits too, drawing pictures of his sister Will and his father. 
However, we do not know for sure if they posed for him or if he used 
their photographs. 

the way vincent starts drawing  

Before Vincent starts drawing and painting he first did lots of other 
things. When he works at the Goupil art trade company he gets 
acquainted with all kinds of art. He does not like the job at Goupil 
but altough he gets a sharp look at painters and paintings. After 8 
years of working at Goupil's Vincent quits, but his brother Theo stays 
and he will work the rest of his life for this firm. 

First Vincent will have a very religious period, filled with 
fanaticism. He wants to get the same profession as his father and 
grandfather: he wants to become a clergyman. It appears very soon 
that Vincent lacks the qualities for this ministry. He gets a job 
as a teacher in England but fails there. Then he works at a book 
shop at Dordrecht, but he spends to much time there to read the bible 
and finally he goes to Belgium. He works as an evangelist very hard 
at the Bourinage, a mining district with many poor people. When he 
has a moment of rest he makes some sketches of labourers. In spite 
of his enthusiasm to do a perfect job as an evengelist he gets 
dismissed because he lacks "the gift of speaking and preaching". 
Vincent is very disappointed and in 1880 he writes to Theo: 
"Whatever, I will be all right, and I will take my pencil in my 
hand again and start drawing".

In 1880 Vincent moves to Brussels and he asks Theo to borrow ten 
sheets with engravements of Millets "travaux des champs" to copy 
them. Millets work with pictures of working farmers and labourers 
will inspire Vincent the coming time. He calls the French painter 
"Father Millet", because Millet is the only person, according to 
Vincent, who is able to show the real soul in the figures he paints. 
Like Millet, Vincent wants to paint farmers, and he will do so during 
his whole life. Vincent gets inspiration too from some art courses, 
made by the French Charles Bargue: "Exercises au fusain" (how to 
use your pencil) and "Cours de dessin" (how to learn drawing). 
Vincent starts practicing these courses quite fanatically. In the 
meantime Theo has got a better job at Goupil's and is able to send 
his brother some money every month. Staying at Brussels Vincent meets 
the young painter Anthon van Rappard. They become friends and Vincent 
is working from time to time in the studio of his new friend. 
When van Rappard leaves Brussels, Vincent decides to go home to 
Etten because living at Brussels and renting a studio is much to 
expensive for him. "The best thing to do is to spend this summer 
at Etten, there is a lot to draw there", he writes to Theo. 

After all those years of poverty, sorrow and disappointment the first 
months at Etten are a relief. It was good to be back home at Etten, 
a friendly small village in West Brabant in the south of the 
Netherlands. Without sorrow he would be able to practice sketching 
and drawing ... 

vincent's stay at etten  

Vincent likes most working on the moor. People see him often working 
in the region between Seppe and Liesbos. 
 
He visits the workrooms of the blacksmith, the carpenter, and the 
clog-maker , and sketches them during their work. The most he has 
to concentrate on, in his opinion, is the drawing of models. 
He tries to find the correct proportions but that is a hard job 
for him. It stands to reason that Vincent pays his models a small 
fee. The labourers Kaufmann and Schuitemaker and Mrs. Oostrijck 
have posed for him several times. In october Vincent gets 
fascinated by the beautiful old willows along the road to the 
railroad station, and makes several drawings of this scene.

At the beginning of summer Vincents friend from Brussels 
Anton van Rappard is staying for several weeks at Etten. Both 
friends draw and paint landscapes in the environment. They draw 
at home too, and even during the sermon of clergyman Jan Gerrit 
Kam at the church of Leur Van Rappard keeps on sketching. They 
exchange books and after the stay they keep on writing letters 
to each other. Vincent does not always agree with the activities 
of his friend. He rejects drawing the nude as been done on academies. 
In his opinion he has to work on themes from the Dutch nature: 
Landscape and typical figures from the village.

As a conclusion of his period at Etten, we can say that Vincent 
lacked people with the same ideas and ideals, brothers in art. 
He hopes to find them at The Hague ...

Just since the 20th of july 1882, Vincent van Gogh, the painter, 
is removed from the register of population of Etten en Leur. 

etten  

This page shows a comparison of Etten in the end of the 19th century 
and Etten in the 21th century, when it's called Etten-Leur since a 
fusion with the village Leur in 1968. 


  Etten in the end of the 19th century

When Vincents father is called as a clergyman at the the parish at 
Etten in 1875, Etten and the village nextdoor Leur are small places, 
counting 5700 inhabitants. Most of them are catholic.

In that time Leur had his own parish, the parish of Etten counted 
just 158 members. The municipality of Etten and Leur was just a 
litlle dozed off village situated between Roosendaal and Breda in 
an environment with lots of forests and moor. Most of the people 
were working as agriculturists. At Leur was a sugar factory, giving 
work to 150 men at the season the sugar-beets were elaborated into 
sugar. At Etten and Leur were 3 cigar-works, giving work to 40 people. 
For the rest there were only a few one-man businesses, giving work to 
just one or two servants or errand-boys: a few breweries, a couple of 
forges, some mills, some clogmakers, tanners and more then 20 
shoemakers. Two hundred men were working at these businesses. There 
were just a few shops in the village during the eighties, most of 
the people went to Breda to buy the things they needed. You were 
able to reach Breda walking, or using horse and carriage. It was also 
possible to take a freight carriage, going every Thursday and Friday 
to Breda and back. Besides, Etten had a railroad station at the 
railroad between Breda and Roosendaal.

People did not earn a lot of money during these years. Clergyman 
Van Gogh earned 900 guilders a year, much money compared to what 
the other people earned, but not quite an amount to live in 
luxury ... The living at Etten and Leur was very peaceful. Just the 
weekly cattle-market at Etten gave some diversion to the daily life. 
From time to time there was a little disaster: in 1881 two farms 
were burned down completely: one at the Steenweg, a road from Etten 
to Leur, the other one at the Klappenberg. 


  Etten in the 21th century

At the end of the 20th century, Etten Leur gets more and more new 
inhabitants. If you are working at Etten, you like to live here too. 
The former little village is growing bigger and bigger. The sleepy 
agricultural villages of Etten and Leur from the time of Vincent 
Van Gogh have grown up to a dynamic industrial little town, with 
an intimate atmosphere that still remembers to those years of the 
past. There are lots of possibilities in the field of living, 
working, shopping, education, entertainment and culture.
You can reach Etten-Leur very easy and quick by train, bus or car, 
or on-line, via http://www.etten-leur.nl. At the moment the diversion 
of highway A58, which divided Etten-Leur into two parts, has been 
finished and now the town will get the opportunity to make a new 
and swinging centre of the city at the place of the former highway. 

stories and mysteries  

Some sketches of Vincent have got a strange, mysterious story ... 

As far as we know there are no sketches from Vincent at Etten anymore. 
In 1926 it was different: a certain mr Stokvis describes how mr Dijkman, 
the clergyman at Etten at that moment shows him a map of the Holy Land 
made by Vincent as a present to his father in 1877. The map was hanging 
in the vestry of the church. The same map has been described in 1935 by 
clergyman mr. Aalders: " ... a map of Palestina, drawn by Vincent and 
mentioned in his letter from 18th february 1878: " ... the map of the 
Holy Land, I made for Dad's birthday with red crayon on solid brown 
paper."." The birthday of Father van Gogh was on february 8th. The map 
has disappeared and has never been found anymore ...

One particular drawing, made by Vincent at Etten has been a hot item 
for several years: It is a drawing hidden by mr. Minus Oostrijk until 
his death. Postman Minus Oostrijk, a son of Joh. Oostrijk who was an 
elder at the time of clergyman van Gogh, had two drawings of Vincent: 
one of the windmill at the Roosendaalseweg, and one of the 
Stationsstraat. Minus lent the drawing of the mill out to a 
friendly lady from Amsterdam, who wanted to expose the drawing. 
Minus never saw this drawing back ... From that time he kept the 
other drawing hidden and showed it to nobody anymore. 
 
People who had seen the drawing earlier were Co Gobbens, a hobbyist 
painter from Etten and the professional painter Jan Theuns from Breda. 
Gobbens told the drawing had been damaged by water and that the 
perspective used was not quite well. Theuns copied the drawing from 
his memory: a little lane with pollard-willows with a road-sweeper 
and other figures. Minus never showed his drawing anymore to anyone. 
When he died in 1956 he took the secret of the place where he kept 
the drawing into his grave. In 1957 there was a discovery: it appeared 
the drawing was kept by Minus' neighbour Jan de Visser. Already in 
1932 Minus gave the drawing to him as a payment for all the meals 
he got from the de Visser family. The newspapers wrote there were 
even three drawings kept by De Visser: one of "de Baai", one of a 
portrait of a woman and one landscape in winter. De Visser showed 
the painting to nobody, but he made clear that he wanted to sell 
the drawing to the highest bidder.

In 1959 J.van Esch discovered in an article written by the former 
clergyman of Etten mr. L. Aalders a description and a photograph (!) 
of a drawing:
"And then there is a beautiful sketch of the Stationsweg at Etten. 
A member of the parish had it in his possession and allowed me to 
make this photograph. I thank him very much. Probably the drawing has 
been made in 1881 and was given by Vincent himself to one of the 
elders of his father."
This could be the drawing Minus Oostrijk, son of an elder of clergyman 
van Gogh, had hidden.

Cees Maas, a journalist of newspaper De Stem tells the whole story in 
the paper of february 6th 1988: it appears to be the drawing of Minus, 
the sketch Clergyman Aaalders describes. Jan de Visser sells in 1960 
the drawing to a Swiss collector F. Nathan. In 1964 Nathan sells the 
drawing to R. Lehman at New York. The Lehman heirs sell in 1969 the 
drawing to the Metropolitan Museum at New York (http://www.metmuseum.org),
which has the drawing still in her collection nowadays.

The appreciation of the pieces of art, made by van Gogh have been 
changed thoroughly: the antique dealer Jan Couvreur from Breda was 
not able to sell Vincents drawings to anyone at a fair price. Some 
sketches he sold for 5 cents, the more beautiful drawings were 
sold for ten cents, and the top of the bill of the sketches were 
sold for a price of 25 cents!!!! With a self-portrait of Vincent 
Couvreur lightened his stove. Coffee-house Ruedisueli bought lots 
of drawings from Couvreur and gave them away as a present to anyone 
who bought a glass of beer ... In the house of a waiter of the 
Ruedisueli pub a painting of van Gogh was discovered stuck on the 
door of one of the rooms. The painting has been sold, including the door! 

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. 

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

  J.A. Oostrijck
His father was an elder of elergyman 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 het 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 ofter wore a raincoat and a 
southwester. 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 to him working, he always asked to 
go away. It 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 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 Vincents 
always had with him when he went out to draw. A sketch for this 
chair has been 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 bred him for the church. 

Benno Stokvis, 1926

  Piet Kaufmann
Nowadays a quite sturdy man of 60 years old. He sat as a model to 
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 to Vincent he 
was a gardner at the Van Gogh family and 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 was he working: he worked until he had expressed the 
things he wanted.
The maid-servant of the Van Gogh family told that Vincent was working 
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 called him, "Yes, I'm coming," he called back, but 
he did not show up at all, or 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 thoughts." 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 lots at removals. He had sitten thirty or fifty times to
Vincent.

Benno Stokvis, 1926

  C. Kerstens
He told 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

HIS LIFE  

This is a timeline of Van Gogh's life, from the 30th of march 1853, 
when he was born, to the 29th of juli 1890, when he commits suicide.
If you scroll down now, you'll see a timeline. Just click a year and 
the information will appear with a funny comic. 

1853  

Vincent was born in Zundert as the oldest child of Ds. Th. van Gogh.

Vincent Willem Van Gogh was born on the 30th of March to Theodorus 
Van Gogh (1822-1885), a Lutheran preacher in the Dutch reformed 
Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus (1819-1907). He was the eldest 
of six children, his mother having lost her first child prior to 
Vincent's birth. He was born in the village of Groot-Zundert, in 
the southern province of North Brabant, in the Netherlands. As a 
young child, Vincent had a moody, restless temperament that became 
more pronounced in later years. People who knew him then used 
adjectives like 'aloof' and 'intensely serious' to describe him. 
Vincent himself described his childhood as 'gloomy, cold and 
sterile'. His favorite brother, Theo was born four years later 
on May 1st, 1857.

1864  

Vincent is on a boarding school with teacher Provily in 
Zevenbergen.

Vincent was sent to boarding school in Zevenbergen at the age of 
11 after spending three years at the local school in Zundert. 
His parents, though not wealthy, wanted their son to continue his 
education at a better school than the one in Zundert. At 
Zevenbergen, under the tutelage of Provily, he learns to speak 
and write French, English and German and gets his first 
exposure to drawing. However, in March 1868, he terminates 
his formal education when he abruptly abandons his studies 
in the middle of the academic year and returns to Zundert. 

1866  

Vincent does the H.B.S. in Tilburg.

In 1866 he goes to the HBS (a grammar school) in Tilburg. 
Vincent had a flair for languages and soon became an expert 
in French, English and German. In March 1868, in the 
middle of the school year, he terminates his formal 
education and goes back to Zundert, where he was born. 
He never completed his course of study at Tilburg. 

1869  

Vincent goes for work to the art trade Goupil in Den Haag 
(The Hague).

At the age of 16, Vincent is apprenticed to Goupil & Cie., 
international art dealers from Paris with a branch established 
in The Hague, in Belgium. His uncle Vincent, after whom he was 
named, was a partner in the firm. While working here, Vincent 
makes frequent visits to the museums of The Hague. His 
knowledge of art increases during this time and he has a 
greater appreciation of the styles and techniques of artists 
like Jean-Francois Millet, Israels and Antoine Mauve, who 
later married his cousin Jet Carbentus in 1870. Theo later 
worked for the same firm. 

1873  

Vincent goes for work to the art trade Goupil in London.

Vincent is transferred to the London branch. Daily contact 
with works of art rekindles his appreciation of paintings 
and drawings. In the city's museums and galleries, he becomes 
a avid admirer of the works of Jean-Fraincois Millet and 
Jules Breton. His religious fervor increases to the detriment 
of his work. In the summer he falls unsuccessfully in love 
with Eugenia, the daughter of Mrs. Ursula Loyer, who runs 
the boarding house where he is staying. This was the first 
of several terrible attempts to find happiness with a woman. 
She was not attracted to him and was engaged. He is rejected 
and extremely depressed. Theo accepts a position at Goupil's 
in January, working in Brussels before transferring to 
The Hague in November of this year. 

1875  

Vincent goes for work to the art trade Goupil in Paris.

His unrequited passion affects his job at Goupil's and Cie. 
In May he is sent again to Paris after getting into a 
series of arguments with the customers at the art gallery. 
He often told customers that what they were buying was 
useless junk and became very disillusioned about the art 
trade in general as he writes to his sister,? Only his 
uncle's influence allowed him a second chance with the 
firm. He attends art exhibitions at the Salon and the Louvre, 
and decorates his room with art prints by The Hague School. 

1876  

Vincent was fired at Goupil, and becomes a teacher and 
curate in Ramsgate and Isleworth

Vincent was dismissed from Goupil and Cie. due to his 
restlessness and his inability to meet the requirements 
of good salesmanship. He returned to Ramsgate, England 
as an unpaid assistant at a boarding school. In July he 
is offered a position as teacher and assistant preacher at 
Isleworth, near London with Reverend T. Slade Jones. Being 
the son of a minister, Van Gogh was very much drawn toward 
religion. Driven by a growing desire to help his fellow men, 
he decides to become a clergyman. Being the first son of a 
minister put psychological pressure on Vincent. There were 
certain expectations of him particularly in terms of spiritual 
development and altruism to his fellow men. Perhaps the desire 
to fulfill the expectations of him to carry on his father's 
ministry might have influenced or fueled the desire he had 
to help people less fortunate than him.
On November 4, Van Gogh delivers his first sermon. His interest 
in evangelical Christianity and ministering to the poor borders 
on obsession, probably because at this point he struggling with 
his own perception of what God expects of him and what his 
family expect of him. On a visit to his parents, Vincent is 
persuaded not to return England. With the help of his uncle 
and father he took a job in a bookshop. While working as a 
clerk for the bookseller he rented a room with a family 
named Rijken. His landlady attested to his anti-social 
behavior. This was to be another unsuccessful venture as 
Vincent had trouble concentrating on his work, preferring 
instead to translate the bible into other languages. He 
works at the bookstore for only three months. 

1877  

Vincent works at a bookstore in Dordrecht; he starts a 
study for government examination in Amsterdam

Determined to become a minister nonetheless, he moves to 
Amsterdam and attempts to enroll in theology school. 
In Amsterdam, he began studying for the University entrance 
exams in theology, but soon found that he failed some of his 
courses in math and the foreign languages. When he is refused 
admittance, Vincent briefly enters a missionary school near 
Brussels.

1878  

Vincent cancels his study and follows an evangeliststraining in 
Laken and becomes an evangelist in the Borinage.

He abandoned his religious studies and went to work as a lay 
preacher among the impoverished miners of the grim Borinage 
district in Belgium. Often, he gave away his own few worldly 
good to the poor, earning him the disapproval of his superiors. 
Nonetheless, he could not convincingly communicate his 
religious feelings to his flock and was dismissed for what 
was considered his 'overzealous behavior'. He remained in 
the Borinage, suffering acute poverty and a spiritual crisis 
until 1880. 

1880  

Vincent gets fired and moves to Brussel to start drawing. He 
get's a montly grand from his brother Theo.

Vincent is now 27 yrs old and a failure in the eyes of his 
family due to his inability to hold down a job. He is under 
pressure to start earning a living. At the same time he is 
wrestling with trying to understand his spirituality. He 
decides that a means to kill two birds with one stone is 
art- he sustain himself from his work and at the same time 
express himself to people through his art. He writes: "To 
try to understand the real significance of what the great 
artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, 
that leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; 
another, in a picture."
From this time he approached life an his art with renewed 
enthusiasm, in spite of suffering often from acute poverty. 
His brother Theo, an artist who was living in Paris, agreed 
to encourage and finance his decision to become a painter. 
Vincent moved to Brussels studying independently and sometimes 
in the company of Dutch artist Anthon Van Rappard. 

1881  

Vincent goes back home to Etten now and starts a 
systematical study on drawing.

In Etten, Vincent falls in love with his cousin Kee 
Vos-Stricker, who rejects his advances. His dogged pursuit 
of Kee causes a rift with his parents, the reason being 
that in that day and age to even contemplate marriage with 
one's own cousin was considered a taboo. Undaunted by her 
obvious disinterest in him, Vincent attempted to visit her 
in her family's home but was refused entry. Lamp incident? 
At the end of 1881 he moved to The Hague and there too he 
concentrated mainly on drawing. He started taking painting 
lessons from his cousin by marriage, Anton Mauve, a leading 
member of the Hague school. Mauve introduces him to 
watercolor and oil technique. His devoted brother Theo, 
supported him by sending him money regularly from his own 
small salary. 
Did you know you could do a systematical study on drawing 
yourself with our on-line Art Course? 

1882  

Vincent does a study on drawing with Mauve.

Van Gogh makes his first independent watercolor and painted 
studies in the summer of 1882. His uncle Cornelis Van Gogh 
commissions him to produce 12 views of The Hague. Vincent 
scandalizes his family when he takes his model, a pregnant 
unmarried prostitute named Sien Hoornik, and her young 
daughter into his household. The only thing they had in 
common was their shared misery. For a short time he seemed 
quite happy with her, even though he contracted gonorrhea 
during this time. 

1883  

Vincent draws in Drente.

In late 1883 after a brief stay in the wilds of the 
moorland province of Drenthe, where he paints the bleak 
landscape and peasant workers, but lonely and lacking 
proper materials, he soon leaves for Nuenen. He went back 
to live with his parents who had moved to the village of 
Nuenen near Eindhoven. It was here that he first began 
painting regularly, modeling himself chiefly on the French 
painter Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), who had caused a 
sensation throughout Europe with his scenes of the harsh 
life of peasants. 

1884  

Vincent goes back home again, but now in Nuenen. Here he makes 
the potato eaters and the weavers.

Vincent begins a relationship with a neighbor's daughter, 
Margot Begemann. For once, his love for a woman is reciprocated 
but both families are opposed to their plan to marry. Vincent 
slips into great depression and despair. 

1885  

Vincent's father, Th. van Gogh dies and Vincent moves to 
Antwerpen.

On March 26, Vincent's father dies suddenly from a stroke. 
In keeping with his humanitarian outlook, he painted peasants 
and workers, the most famous picture from this period being 
The Potato Eaters . Van Gogh left for Antwerp at the end of 
1885 on the advice of Antoine Mauve where he studied briefly 
at the Art Academy of Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Van Gogh was 
quite excited by the city, writing to his brother: "I find 
here the friction of ideas I want." He has access to better 
art supplies, the opportunity to draw from nude models, and 
is exposed to the substantial collections of Dutch and 
Belgian art in the city's museums and galleries, particularly 
the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens. Among the exotic goods 
entering Europe through Antwerp are Japanese woodblock prints, 
which Vincent begins to collect.

1886  

Vincent is in Paris, where he meets Pissaro, Signac, Seurat, 
Toulouse-Lautrec (on the picture above, right), Gaugin and 
Bernard. He really lights up here.

Vincent rebelled against the mode of instruction at the Art 
Academy and in February 1886 he went to live with his brother 
Theo in Montmartre, an artist's quarter in Paris. Theo who 
managed the Montmartre branch of Goupil's (now called Boussod, 
Valadon and Cie.) introduced Vincent to the works of Claude 
Monet, Camille Pissaro, Edgar Degas and other Impressionists. 
For four months Van Gogh studied under Fernand Cormon. 
There he met artists like Emile Bernard, John Russell and 
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Among his new friends Vincent 
counts the painters he refers to as the 'artists of the 
Petit Boulevard'- Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Bernard and 
Louise Anquetin. In this year he organizes a group show 
of his and his friends' paintings at a Paris restaurant. 
They often gather at Pere Tanguy's paint shop, where Vincent 
regularly sees Gauguin. Tanguy, who generously advances 
supplies to many young artists, occasionally displays 
Vincent's paintings in his store window. He arranges an 
exhibition of Japanese woodcuts at a Paris café and makes 
a few 'copies' after Japanese prints.

Vincent buys Japanese prints from the noted art dealer 
Siegfried Bing and studies intensively. At this time his 
style became more defined and changed under the combined 
influence of the Impressionist approach as well as the 
Japaneseries techniques of painting by Japanese printmakers 
such as Hiroshige and Hokusai. Van Gogh became intrigued by 
the symbolism of colors a began to use them for the purpose 
of expressing whatever emotions the subject induces in him, 
as did the Impressionists, for the reproduction of visual 
appearances, atmosphere and light. 'Instead of trying to 
reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes,' he wrote, 
'I use color more arbitrarily so as to express myself more 
forcibly'. He was confronted with the modern art of the 
Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. He discovered 
that the dark palette he had developed back in Holland 
was hopelessly outmoded and set out to master the modern 
technique, a feat he achieved in 2 years. His palette 
became lighter and he started to use pure colors and 
his brushwork became more broken. Vincent used to keep balls 
of wool with threads of different hues to sample and test the 
effect of different and often daring color combinations. 
His own work took on the expressive coloration of his Japanese 
examples. 

1888  

Vincent moves with gaugain to Arles. Vincent's paintings get a 
fierce, burnig, bright light. He get's fits of madness.

In February 1888 Van Gogh went south to Arles, in Provence, 
where he at last began to feel a bit confident about his 
choice of career. He painted more than 200 canvasses in 15 
months. During this time he sold no pictures, was in 
poverty and suffered recurrent nervous crisis with 
hallucinations and depression. He became enthusiastic for 
the idea of founding an artists' co-operative at Arles and 
rents a studio in Arles, the 'Yellow House' and towards the 
end of the year Gauguin joined him. On December 4, an argument 
ensued between them and Vincent unsuccessfully attacked 
Gauguin. It was during this argument that the famous 
incident where he cut off part of his left earlobe 
occurred. He wrapped the severed ear in paper and gave it 
to a prostitute he had befriended as a 'present'. Towards 
the end of the year, the first signs of his illness, a 
type of epilepsy that took the form of delusions rudely 
shattered his optimism and psychotic attacks. It was 
during one of these seizures that he cut off his left earlobe. 

1889  

Vincent is took in in the hospital in St. Remy near Arles. 
He's got changing periods of mental health and fits of madness.

He went to nearby Saint-Remy, where he entered the 
Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum of his own volition. 
He did 150 paintings besides drawings in the course 
of this year. Theo married and in May Van Gogh moved 
to Auvers-sur-Oise to be near him, as a guest of 
Dr Paul Gachet. During this time there were wild 
fluctuations in his mental state, moving from depression 
to frantic bursts of strenuous energy. His work finally 
began to receive some recognition. His Starry Night over 
the Rhone and Irises are exhibited at the Salon des 
Independants in September and in November he is invited 
to exhibit six of his works by Octave Maus, secretary of 
the Belgian artist group, Les XX. 

1890  

Vincent goed to Auvers sur Oise; he gets more and more 
melancholic. He commits suicide at the 29th of July 1890.

In January Theo's wife, Jo, gives birth to a son whom they 
name Vincent Willem. After a serious attack in February 
lasting two months, it is decided that Vincent should be 
under the care of Dr. Paul Gachet. He left the institution 
at the end of 1890 and went north again, this time to the 
rustic village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. Although he 
now had a small but growing circle of admirers, Van Gogh 
had lost his original passion. "I feel a failure", he wrote 
to Theo. He arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise, twenty two miles 
from Paris, full of enthusiasm at the magnificence of the 
countryside, delighted with the thatched roof of local 
cottages, and, alone with himself and nature, spent all 
his time outside, painting. Alas, his good spirits were 
not to last. In one of his last letters to Theo, dated 
July 1890, he sadly wrote, "I feel...a failure. 
That's it as far as I'm concerned...I feel that this 
is the destiny that I accept, that will never change."
In July he somehow gets hold of a gun and shoots 
himself. He died of his injuries two days later 
at the age of 37. 

LETTERS  

This subject contains letters Vincent wrote to his brother Theo 
and to his artistic friend, Anthon van Rappard during his stay at 
Etten. Just click a letter on the right and the letter will appear 
in a new window. 

All Vincent's letters are numbered, and we've chosen the 27 most 
important or remarkable letters to put on this site.

The letters, written by Vincent to his brother Theo, de rest of 
his family, and his brothers in art, take up a whole book. Thanks 
to Jo Van Gogh-Bonger, the widow of Theo, the biggest part of these 
letters have been saved. Today these letters are generally considered 
as literature.

We know approximately 50 letters he wrote during his stay at Etten, 
mostly directed to Theo, and just a few to his artistic friend 
Anthon Van Rappard. Vincent describes in his letters his life of 
every day, his work, sometimes illustrated by little sketches, 
but also his personal feelings to his parents.

Very remarkable is his description of his love for Kee Vos and 
the reaction from his parents, causing the departure from the 
rectory at Etten to The Hague.

You will find here most of the letters, written during his stay 
at Etten.

To his brother Theo:
letter 091   letter 147   letter 153   letter 160
letter 123   letter 148   letter 155   letter 162
letter 124   letter 149   letter 156   letter 163
letter 144   letter 150   letter 157   letter 164
letter 145   letter 151   letter 158   letter 165
letter 146   letter 152   letter 159   letter 166

To Anthon van Rappard:
letter R1
letter R2
letter R3

ART COURSE  

Because the art course contains lots of interactivities and you can't
miss the graphics here, you can click here to
go to the art course in the normal version of the site.

OUR SCHOOLPROJECT  

There was a great schoolproject at Etten in which we made great 
reproductions of some of Vincent's famous paintings and exposed 
them... ...along the highway!

In connection with the project "Van Gogh along the highway", 
students of the Katholieke Scholengemeenschap Etten-Leur made 
ten major reproductions of famous paintings of the master. The 
reproductions were exposed along the highway A58 between Breda 
and Roosendaal (which is shown on the left), a highway with 
traffic of more than 50.000 cars a day. This highway doesn't 
exist anymore. The project has been realized in the spring of 
1990, in memory of the death of Vincent van Gogh 100 years ago. 
The huge reproductions were made by 150 students who had art as 
one of their examination subjects, under the guidance of their art 
teachers. 

the planning  

Before the billboards could be placed along the highway, there were 
lots of things that had to be done in advance. 

It was in the newspaper in november 1989: the Katholieke 
Scholengemeenschap in Etten-Leur (formely called Etten) should 
be made under the lead of the team of four art teachers. There 
were to be ten copies of five Van Gogh portraits, a photograph 
and four of his most famous paintings: The Langlois bridge with 
woman washing, Cafe terrace by night, The potato eaters and Fishing 
boats on the beach. Everything would be payed by sponsors. These 
sponsors had all their names written below the billboards. They 
should pay 1500 Dutch guilders (USD + 3453). The municipality did 
agree with it. The project was developed with the help of four 
teachers. Click here to go to the "the team behind" page. The 
whole idea was from the Van Gogh Stichting Etten-Leur, who wanted 
to do something for Van Gogh on his death memorial year. 

fund raising  

We needed money to realize our schoolproject, so we searched for 
sponsors. Their names were put beneath the billboards. 

Because of the costs of the project sponsors had to been found, 
willing to pay an amount of 1500 Dutch guilders (USD + 665). 

For this purpose two artist impressions were made by one of 
the art teachers of the KSE, showing the paintings along the 
highway. These impressions were sent to several firms at 
Etten-Leur with a letter to give them the opportunity to 
participate. These mailings were, thanks to articles in 
the local newspapers very succesful and in only one week 
time the whole financial and material base of the project had been 
settled.
The local paint manufacturer Farball Holland b.v. donated all the 
paint needed, two firms of building contractors promised to take 
care to place the paintings along the road. Other firms paid the 
money needed for all the other expenses. 

making the paintings  

To make the huge billboards for our schoolproject, we needed a place 
to produce the billboards. And how should we do it then? 

The headmaster of the school offered the auditorium. Lots of plastic 
pieces on the floor had to prevent paint spots. The whole auditorium 
seemed wrapped like a Christo.
On stage were spots created to take and mix the paint and were 
buckets with water placed to clean the brushes. The paintings 
should be realized on ten plywood panels of 3 x 4 meters or 4 x 3 
meters. 

The art teachers made a teaching package and a schedule for the 
students with instructions and background info about van Gogh, 
big paintings and land art projects. Thanks to the schedule every 
student knew the moment to show up in the auditorium to paint. They 
should paint in groups of fifteen students during sessions of 100 
minutes each. When the students had painted in the auditorium in 
one week, they had in the other week to work in the classroom to 
make an assignment from the teaching package (see paintings & sketches 
by students). Having grounded the panels, they were put to the wall 
and slides of the original paintings were projected on them. These 
projections were traced on the panels with big markers. In the 
meantime the art teachers showed slides with details of the works, 
the movie "Lust for life", about the life of van Gogh, and the 
whole painting crew went on the bus to Amsterdam te see the originals 
in the Van Gogh museum. 

Before starting painting, every group of fifteen students took 
artbooks , posters and reproductions of "their" painting and at 
the start they got a briefing from their teacher: everybody knew 
what to do. Mixing the paint to get the right colors was quite 
difficult but at least every team succeeded to find the right touch 
for every painting. First the biggest color fields were painted, 
when it seemed all right at first sight, details followed. In two 
months time the paintings were finished. 

exposition  

Just before the billboards were placed along the highway, they 
were exposed in the auditorium of the school. 

Mayor M. van de Ven of Etten opened the exposition at Saturday 
the 10th of May, 10:30 in the morning. After three months of hard 
work by over 150 students, all ten billboards were completed. 
Hundreds of people came to look, especially the parents of the 
students and the older people. To enlarge the pictures to the size 
(4 by 5 meters) they should be, an old but good working method was 
used: the students projected dia's on the boards and drawed the 
outlines on it. Later the students put in the colors. Because mayor 
van de Ven not only appreciated the work of the students but the 
team of art teachers as well, the team leader was awarded the official 
Vincent van Gogh remembrance coin of Etten-Leur. Tuesday, the 13th 
of March the billboards would be exposed along the highway, where 
they got the attention of more then 50.000 car drivers per day. 

along the highway  

This is some kind of step-by-step photo report on how the billboards 
were made and placed along the highway. 

Just click the button below and the tour begins. First you'll see the 
intro text. The actial tour will start after 10 seconds, or when you 
click "start". In the tour itself you get to see each picture for 
12 seconds. When you click the photo, the tour will advance to the 
next one immediately. For now, let's start the tour!

S T A R T  T H E  T O U R

afterwards  

Where would the billboards go now the billboard project had ended 
after seven weeks exposition along the highway? 

The ten billboards were removed from the highway. Four of them were 
sold for 1500 Dutch Guilders (USD + 665) each to several firms 
(Fri-Jado/Belair, Rotogravure and Dessina), three billboards were 
let out to Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) for a month. The last three were 
exposed at school. It never was the meaning to make money with the 
billboards, but altough initiator Sjaak Jansen would like it as V&D 
wanted to buy the billboards after all, it would nicely compensate 
the costs of the project. The money they made would be spared for 
later activities at school.
Not even a scratch was on the boards after a seven week trip to the 
highway. Even graffitisprayers didn't touch the billboards. 

media  

Like you probably read, there was a lot of media attention for 
the project. 

The news about the project was in a lot of papers even before it 
started. Lots of newspapers were writing about it. When the painting 
had started there was even more attention from the media. It was in 
newspapers, on radio, on the national TV-news twice, at the news for 
youngsters and even at the most popular children's TV program of 
The Netherlands: Telekids. You can view fragments of these 
television broadcasts by clicking "view video files" on the 
second blue square.
But there was negative media too. The newspaper of 9 November 1989 
tells us that The Dutch traffic department van convinced that these 
billboards would attract the attention of the automobilists so much,
that there would happen terrible accidents. But the making of the
paintings continued and they were placed along the highway. Then a
positive article appeared on the 5th of May 1990: The billboards
were not dangerous, said the police of Etten. There was not even
one accident in the time the billboards were placed along the highway.

Just before the billboards would be placed, there was an exposition 
in the schools auditorium showing all ten billboards. The newspapers 
wrote again. Now the TV-news came to take a look at the painting spot.
Afterwards four of the billboards were sold to several firms like 
Fri-Jado/Belair, Rotogravure and Dessina. And another three were 
let out to V&D, a big shopping mall. Of course because of the money
that played a role (the school didn't make profit out of the project,
the money was used to pay all the costs of the project and for other
activities), newspapers were there to write their articles. 

paintings & sketches by students  

Because only 15 students at the same time could be working on the 
billboards (see making the paintings), there were some other 
assignments for the students left in the art-classroom to let 
them be active with our schoolproject too. 

Below you'll find the themes where they were working on during the 
schoolproject (the normal version of the site gives you the ability
to take a look at some student works too):

  Van Gogh along the highway
 Search reproductions of works of Van Gogh that you like the 
most. Imagine that your favourite work will be exposed along 
the highway and you, driving a car, see it standing there.
Choose the materials you like to make this drawing with.

  Museum visitors at the Van Gogh Museum
 Make a drawing or a painting of one or more people in a museum 
looking at one or more works of Van Gogh.
Show what kinds of people visit the museum, students, children, 
tourists, real art lovers ...

  The big art robbery
 In 1991 thieves sneaked into the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam) 
and in the glimmer of a flashlight they looked for for a painting 
to steal. They stole some paintings, but their car (full with 
paintings) was found the same day somewhere else in the city.
In this assignment you have to try to show the atmosphere and the 
excitement of the moment of looking for a painting to steal.

  Potato eaters in new style
 Take a really good look at the potato eaters, because you have 
to base your work upon the same arrangement of figures and objects 
like Vincent did. But you have to place these figures and objects 
in a nowadays environment (a living-room, restaurant, snackbar etc.). 
The people have to wear today's clothes.

  Van Gogh in the 90's at Etten-Leur
 Collect pictures of known places at Etten-Leur. Also search for 
self-portraits of Vincent. Imagine that he is walking trough Etten 
right now. What would he carry with him? A box of painting stuff 
or a camcorder?

the copied paintings  

These are the paintings that were enlarged and copied for 
our schoolproject. All the data of the paintings are 
combined in the table below here. Click "view original" 
to see the original painting, and click "view result" to 
see the billboard. A new window will be opened for 
these images. 

The reproductions of the paintings we made wew exposed at both 
sides of the highway. These were the paintings to be seen from 
Roosendaal to Breda:

Self portrait at the Easel 
65 cm × 50,5 cm 
january / februari 1888 
Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam 
original | result

The Langois Bridge with women washing 
n/a 
Arles, march 1888 
Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo 
original | result

Cafe terrace by night 
81 cm × 65,5 cm 
Arles, september 1888 
Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo 
original | result

Fishing boats on the beach 
n/a 
Saints Maries de la Mer, 1888 
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
original | result



From the opposite direction (Breda - Roosendaal) you could 
see the next works:

The Potato Eaters 
80 cm × 14 cm 
Nuenen, 1885 
Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam 
original | result

Photograph as a young man, 18 years old 
n/a 
1871 
n/a 
original | result
 
Self Portrait with hat 
19 cm × 14 cm Paris, 1887 
Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam 
original | result
  
Self portrait with grey hat 
44 cm × 37,5 cm 
Paris, winter 1887/1888 
Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam
original | result

Self Portrait with bandaged ear and pipe 
51 × 45 cm 
January 1889 
Mr. and Mrs. Leigh H. Block, Chicago 
original | result

Self portrait 
65 cm × 54 cm 
September 1889 
Musée d'Orsay, Paris 
original | result

Because this page contains a picture of the team, you can click here 
to go to this page in the normal version of the site.

MULTIMEDIA  

This page is your guide to all kind of multimedia things on 
this site. Because this page, like it's name says, contains 
multimedia, interactivities and so on, this page is not 
available in the text-only version. But when you click 
here you go to this page in the normal version of the site.

LINKS  

This is our fine selection of the best Van Gogh sites on the web. 
If you click a link, a new window will be opened which contains 
the site. 

 The Vincent Van Gogh Information Gallery
[http://www.vangoghgallery.com]
This site contains multiple "databases" with all Van Gogh's sketches, 
paintings, letters, watercolours a photo gallery, an on-line forum and 
many more. 

 Van Gogh Museum
[http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl]

The official website of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, 
The Netherlands. This site features information on Van Gogh's life, 
Expositions, Education and of course their collection. 

 Mark's Artchive
[http://www.artchive.com/artchive/V/vangogh.html]
A comprehensive site on artists on a number of art movements including 
Expressionism, Fauvism and Impressionism. The site has a biography of 
the artist and information about books, articles and online resources 
on the artist. As an extra you can also send Van Gogh theme gifts to 
friends. 

 Web Museum
[http://metalab.unc.edu/louvre/paint/auth/gogh]
Features painting divided into five categories: Self-portraits, 
Portraits, Still-lives with sunflowers, Views from the asylum, Works 
after Millet, Vineyards, Fields and Cypresses as well as Other 
landscapes. The site also has a biography of the artist. 

 NAS Gallery
[http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~nas/masters/gogh/vangh.htm]
This site has an art forum for people who want to meet with other 
Van Gogh enthusiasts on the net, a short biography and thumbnail 
images of Sunflowers, The Starry Night, Irises, The Night café all 
of which can be clicked upon to view the larger image. 

 Art Museum
[http://www.artmuseum.net/vangogh/gateway.asp]
Looking to get closer to Van Gogh, the artist? This is a great place 
to start (other than here, of course). Apart from a Museum store, 
this site also has a 3D exhibition as well as a 2D exhibition. 
The 3D exhibition is a navigable representation of the exhibition as 
it existed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., 
with zoomable images of the paintings and audio files about selected 
paintings and periods in Van Gogh's career. You need Live Picture® or 
Real Audio® G2 viewers. The Archive contains sketches, photographs, 
letters and material from the archives of the Van Gogh museum and the 
Vincent Van Gogh foundation. Each painting featured has a short review 
and the paintings are chronologically arranged into five periods with 
an alphabetical listing. 

 National Gallery Of Art
[http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg84/gg84-main1.html]
Take a tour featuring works by Camille Pissaro, Van Gogh and Paul 
Cézanne. Also browse through paintings, drawings and prints. For each 
image, you can click on it to view the full-screen image, and get 
information on the bibliography, exhibition history and provenance. 
The Virtual exhibition requires QuickTime®. 

 Van Gogh, Vincent- Genius Ignored
[http://www.serve.com/Lucius/VanGogh.index.html]
Excerpt from a book about artists whose genius went ignored by his 
contemporaries. Includes 35 pages and images. 

 Van Gogh at Nuenen
[http://www.elpub.nl/vangogh/]
Van Gogh at Nuenen- spots painted by Vincent during his stay at 
Nuenen (1883-1885). You can see these spots as they are today. 
Features statues erected in Vincent's memory and images of the 
subjects of his paintings. Also has FAQs, links and overview of 
some 196 paintings. Site is in four different languages including 
Dutch, English and French.

this site  

This section contains all information on this site itself. Who made the 
site? Where do they live? Who are their coaches? Why did they make this 
site? It's all here. 

   about us
Who we are, what we do, where we live, our opinions on this site, 
everything's here. 

        go to: about us »


   awards
On this page you can find out which awards were collected for this site. 

        go to: awards »


   why
All the possible answers on the question: Why did we make this site? 

        go to: why »


   credits
At the credits page are the used sources and thanks for help located. 
You can see where the pictures are took from and by who etc. 

        go to: credits »

ABOUT US  

Who made this site? Maybe you'll ask yourself. We're Team C001734. 
This team contains Shengquan, Hans and Oyinda.

Team C001734 was formed when three challenged and creative internet 
enthusiasts of different ages, sexes and from three different continents 
decided to pool their individual talents together for the Thinkquest 
Internet Challenge competition. Hans from the Netherlands had a great 
idea for a website, hooked up with Shenquan from Singapore through the 
Thinkquest team-maker. In April, Shenquan, who was looking for the 
third person to complete the team, contacted Oyinda from Nigeria and 
the team was formed. Within two weeks we had submitted our team 
proposal and gotten approval for our site. Following the millennium 
trend of retrospection on events and people that influenced our way 
of living and perhaps our perception of life, we decided to work on 
one of the most influential and prolific artists of the past 
millennium- Vincent van Gogh. In this section of our site, you can 
read short biographies on each of us, learn about how we built the 
site and the difficulties we encountered. We also have valuable tips 
for other Thinkquest teams on how to work in a team, maintain your 
sanity as the deadline draws near and produce a truly spectacular 
work of art. This is Team C001734 raw and uncensored ... Enjoy. 

shengquan  

The first team member is Shengquan. These are the things he's done 
and experienced during Thinquest 2000. 

Hi! I am Shengquan from Singapore. I am currently studying 
in The Chinese High School. Well, I am quite an experienced web 
programmer, with skills ranging from java to cgi to scripting languages. 
Therefore, I am in charge of the entire web programming stuff, e.g. 
scripting and games. My hobbies would be programming and basketball.

Having won in a national web design competition, I decided to try on 
a much tougher challenge. Hence, I spent the entire December trying 
to find the perfect team and I stopped my search when I found this 
guy called HWEST. Well, I am a web programmer and I am impressed by 
his graphics skills. Therefore, we decided to work together on this 
project. Before long, we met up with a girl from Nigeria. She was an 
excellent and enthusiatic researcher who was keen on this topic. 
The biggest problem faced in this project is the time difference of
 our countries and the fact that we can’t talk face to face. Most of 
the time, I would have to wake up in the morning just to meet him on 
icq, which is our most common way of communicating. We would really 
like to meet each other and thus the best way would be to work our way 
to the grand finals.

I would now take this opportunity to thank my dearest parents for 
bringing me up and supporting me in whatever I do. Of course, not 
forgetting my teachers (Miss Yeo, Mrs Key, Mr Wong, Mrs Chen and 
lots more)who had to put up with me sleeping in class sometimes. 
(due to the late night meetings) Oh yes, I would really like to thank 
the greatest coach I had ever had, Mr Koh. He was my computer talent 
development teacher for a few months and after some persuasion, 
managed to make him my coach. He is very talented in the field of 
programming, coaching me and correcting my programming errors. 
Finally, a big thank you to all my team mates! Without you, 
this web page will never be completed. I guess I will end this 
here and thanks for visiting our webpage. (Hope you enjoyed it!)

hans  

Another team member is Hans. These are the things he has done and 
experienced during Thinquest 2000. 

Hi there! I'm Hans from the Netherlands. I did the whole 
graphic design of the site, HTML, Flash and the management. 
I did put all the information together in this (hopefully) beautiful 
and clear site.
I already joined some small website competitions at school, which 
they use as a training for Thinkquest. 

So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my art teacher and 
my coach for their great help during Thinkquest 2000. Of course I 
may not forget my team members Shengquan and Oyinda. I've experienced 
that Shengquan is a great webprogrammer who is really creative at his 
tasks. And Oyinda, she's the best content researcher I know by now.

And of course there are a lot of other people I want to thank for 
their help, at first Dr. J. A. Rozemeyer, he gave us permission to 
use all the content of his book, "Van Gogh in Etten". I also want 
to thank Mr. C. Kerstens, from "Heemkundigekring Jan uten Houte" 
for giving tips to improve the site content. And thanks to the 
computer staff of the KSE: Drs. J. Zengerink, Abdel and Hans. And 
last but not least, mayor of Etten, Drs. J. A. M. van Agt. He made 
an introduction for the site and showed a lot of interest in our site.

oyinda  

These are the things team member Oyinda has experienced during this 
Internet Challenge. 

Hi. My name is Oyindamola (pronounced Oh-yin-da-mo-la).
I'm a 17yr-old female from Nigeria. I reside in Lagos, Nigeria and 
recently graduated from the premier Girls' Secondary School in the 
country, Queen's College Yaba. I have plans to attend college this 
September. Working on Thinkquest this year was a truly wonderful 
experience. No words can describe the profound excitement that 
working in a team, this team generated. I have really great team 
mates and enjoyed tremendous support from my coach, Debangsu. 
This is my second and final(boohoo!sob!sob!) year of participation 
in Thinkquest as a student. Last year was not a good year because 
there was alot of friction between all of us in the team. This year, 
I feel that I have been better able to fulfill the objectives of this 
competition including collaboration, team work and especially friendship. 
You can't imagine how much fun I had emailing people I've never seen 
or spoken to. I made other friends through the MyThinkquest system 
apart from my own team mates.
OK, how did we hook up? Hans and Shenquan had been corresponding for 
a while. I sent messages to many Thinkquest participants and met 
Shenquan. He told me what he was working on and he needed one more 
international partner. I was not too crazy about the topic at first, 
I am more inclined towards science and the social sciences. My parents 
convinced me that was all the more reason for me to give art a shot, 
a medium for broadening my horizons. So I thought 'OK', besides that's 
what Thinkquest is about, right? Since then, I have come to have a 
greater appreciation for art and artists. My interest in Van Gogh was 
kindled in the course of my research and I find it easy to empathize 
with the people who consider him one of the greatest Post-Impressionist 
painters of all time.
What did I do on this site? Well, I did content and editing, correction 
of grammatical errors and that sort of thing. I have a knack for finding 
the perfect word for everything.
I really had great time working on this project. Learning has not been 
this much fun for a while and my ken of knowledge on web design has 
been greatly enhanced.
I have to thank my family and all the people that allowed me to use 
their phone to connect to the internet: The Eduns, Aunty Funmi Odubekun, 
Uncle Brimmo, Aunty Folake Bello, Uncle Olu and the people at PINet 
Infomatics.
I could not have done it without the help of my coach, Debangsu, who 
is a two-time Thinkquest Award winner. He always had such good advice 
it was annoying! I also have to thank my team mates Hans and Shenquan, 
you guys were terrfic.
(Oh dear, I'm quite locquacious aren't I? My 'About' is the longest!)
If you want to drop me line or have a funny joke to share or just want 
to be friends, beep me at .
As Hans would say:"Success!" 

coach: koh  

Koh is Shengquan's Coach. 

I am a teacher of Mathematics and Computer Studies in the Chinese 
High School. Prior to this, I have been a system analyst and software 
specialist for several years in the Ministry of Education, overlooking 
the operating system of several mainframes and taking charge of the 
database management system. There were opportunities for me to develop 
application software for the Ministry as well, such as the 'School 
Link Project', 'Teachers' Posting System'. At the same time, I rendered 
consultation to a team of programmers.

To increase the efficiency of the school operation, I have developed 
for the Chinese High School a couple of applications like 'Students 
and Staff Attendance Monitoring System', 'Multiple Choice Marking 
System' and database system for the school to carry out a nation-wide 
Mathematics competition. Lately I also developed a web-based 
'Electronic Message Board' system to facilitate better communication 
among the staff in the school. Some of the abovementioned software 
have been distributed to several schools.

Programming is my passion and I enjoy keeping in touch with the latest 
software development in IT, especially database applications in network 
environment. In the present context, I am providing Shengquan, the main 
programmer of this 'Think Quest' competition, with the necessary 
technical guidance and I find it very stimulating and interesting. 
My hobbies include golfing, badminton, table-tennis. 

coach: hans  

Dear readers of the Van Gogh site. I am Hans le Fèvre. Born
in 1950. I teach the dutch language and informatica at the
KSE in Etten-Leur (Holland). My hobbies are looking at the
soccergame (Vitesse Arnhem), reading and working in my garden.
I'm coaching ThinkQuest participians at our school together
with Sjaak Janssen, the art teacher. We start with the
training of ThinkQuest volunteers in the first class.
In 1998 a pupil of our school won with the site
"Volcanoes Online" the first price in the category
Interdisciplinary".
I hope you enjoyed this site as much as I did!

coach: debangsu  

Debangsu is Oyinda's Coach. 
 
Hi ! I am Debangsu Sengupta from India. I am a Computer Science 
(Honors) student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 
MA, US. In the fall of 2000, I will begin my sophomore year of 
studies. The course of this project has seen me travel back and 
forth among India, Ivory Coast, and USA. However, the global nature 
of the Internet has made it possible for to me to stay in regular 
touch with Oyinda and the rest of the team and provide support for 
the project.

I met Oyinda online and after having lived in the Ivory Coast for 
over two years, I was glad to see another prospective ThinkQuest 
participant from this part of the world. Oyinda's determination and 
enthusiasm for the project meant that it was an easy decision in the 
end to agree to be her coach. I was all too familiar with the 
unreliable Internet connectivity problems that Oyinda faces in 
West Africa. In addition to this, I believe that my experiences as 
a Thinkquest student and coach from 1997-99 placed me in a good 
position to provide effective guidance and advice to her. Oyinda 
is a wonderful, enthusiastic girl and a beautiful content 
researcher/writer. I am proud to have been her coach, although 
she was so good that she often didn't seem to need any!

My interests center around web development, programming and 
design, content editing. In addition, my other hobbies include 
badminton, table tennis, cricket, photography and traveling.

Hope you all enjoyed the work of these three talented students! 

AWARDS  

This page is updated from time to time. This means that this page only
is available at the normal version of this site.

WHY  

The reason why we produced this website.


Looking for a theme to produce a website to participate to 
ThinkQuest 2000 it is important to choose a theme that has 
not got lots of impact on the world wide web already. Our art 
teacher told us a few things in class about the project our 
school did several years ago "Van Gogh along the highway". In my 
opinion a good theme to produce a website! The art teacher gave me 
all the information about this project and he told me too that there 
had been an exposition about Vincents first artwork at Etten. I tried 
to find some info about those first years of Van Gogh on internet, 
but I did not find much about the early years, although there were 
lots of sites about Van Gogh. From several Van Gogh experts at Etten 
I got information and advice, and when I learned that even at Nigeria 
and Singapore people appreciated this Dutch artist I decided: we 
are going to produce "Van Gogh at Etten - sketches and billboards"! 
Producing this site we learned a lot about Van Gogh, his perseverance, 
his enthusiasm, his belief to do what he had to do. We learned how 
even a genius like Van Gogh, needs time and perseverance to reach his 
goals. Those things gave us lots of inspiration and made us carry on 
even when we got a reverse. We hope you will find something of this 
inspiration from Vincent van Gogh in our site. 

CREDITS  

On this page we thank several people for their help. You can also 
find copyright information here.


"Van Gogh at Etten, sketches and billboards" has been made from 
September 1999 until August 2000 by:

Hans Westerbeek, Katholieke Scholengemeenschap Etten-Leur, Etten-Leur, 
the Netherlands.
He has been coached by Mr. H. le Fevre, teacher at the 
Katholieke Scholengemeenschap.

Zhuang Shengquan, The Chinese Highschool, Singapore.
He has been coached by Mr.Koh, teacher at The Chinese Highschool.

Oyinda Osonowo, Queen's College Yaba, Nigeria.
She has been coached by Debangsu Sengupta, former Thinkquest winner 
in 1997 and 1998.

We thank all the people who helped us to make this site, especially:
Dr. J.A. Rozemeyer, Stichting Vincent van Gogh Etten-Leur, who gave us 
permission to use the texts and pictures from the catalogue "Van Gogh 
in Etten".
Drs. A. Rombouts, headmaster of the Katholieke Scholengemeenschap 
Etten-Leur, who gave us access to the archives of the school and 
permission to use pictures, video and articles.
Mr. J.J.M.M. Jansen, art teacher at the Katholieke Scholengemeenschap 
Etten-Leur who made some illustrations and the drawings for the 
art course. He also gave us some useful advice about the billboard 
project.
Mr. C. Kerstens, Heemkundige Kring "Jan uten Houte", Etten-Leur, a 
qualified expert of the theme Van Gogh at Etten, who gave us lots 
of tips.
Ms. N. Rosier, municipal official of the municipality of Etten-Leur, 
who provided pictures of Etten-Leur today and introduced us to the 
mayor, Drs.J.A.M. van Agt.
Drs. J.A.M. van Agt, mayor of the city of Etten-Leur who had the 
kindness to write an introduction for our site.
Mr. P. de Jong who was so kind to digitize lots of photo's and 
video's.
The technical computer staff of the Katholieke Scholengemeenschap 
Etten-Leur, Drs. J. Zengerink, Mr. A. El Hanini and Mr. H. Crul.

Copyright of all texts and pictures we were permitted to use:
Katholieke Scholengemeenschap Etten-Leur,
Stichting Vincent van Gogh Etten-Leur, Municipality of Etten-Leur,
and Sjaak Jansen, Etten-Leur.

As sources we used several books about van Gogh. The most important and 
inspiring books we used were:
J.A.Rozemeyer e.a.:"Van Gogh in Etten",1990, 
Stichting Vincent van Gogh Etten-Leur.
Jan Hulsker: "Van Gogh en zijn weg, het complete werk", 
Meulenhoff/Landshoff, 1989.
Jan Hulsker:"Dagboek van Van Gogh", Meulenhoff/Landshoff, 1990.
Aanbiedingstekst Centraal Schriftelijk Eindexamen 
Kunstgeschiedenis/Kunstbeschouwing 1998, Voorbereidend Wetenschappelijk 
Onderwijs:"De kleuren van de regenboog".

Unless otherwise indicated all pictures used came from the archives 
of KSE comprehensive, © KSE, 2000, or the Stichting Vincent Van Gogh 
Etten-Leur, © Stichting Vincent Van Gogh Etten-Leur, 2000.