Van Gogh New European

42 January 4-January 10, 2018 The New European

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JOOLS STONE visits the Dutch region of Brabant in search of the landscape and lives which shaped the work of its most famous son in the footsteps

he tumultuous final four years of Van Gogh’s life, which he spent in France, weigh heavily upon any attempt to understand the artist. Moving to Paris in March 1886, heT forged connections and techniques of van gogh which would cement his style, while his time in Arles, in the south of the country, ushered in a highly-prolific era. At the same time, the rapid and dramatic deterioration of the artist’s mental health and the mysterious circumstances of his untimely death, aged just 37, in Auvers- sur-Oise, on the Paris outskirts, have tended to concentrate attention on this final chapter of his life. Yet as pivotal and climactic as these four years spent in a foreign land undoubtedly were, the ones that preceded them, in his Netherlands homeland, were just as significant. For it was here, in the North Brabant region, that he honed his craft, with several towns there playing a key role in the Van Gogh story. He was born in Zundert, not far from the Belgian border, in March 1853, the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. He grew up in the region and would spend extended periods of his life there. In nearby Tilburg, where he was sent to study, he received his first proper art schooling, while Etten provided him with his first models. But it was in the small town of Nuenen, where his parents lived, that his work truly flourished. Van Gogh only lived in Nuenen for two years, but he created a quarter of his works there, including The Potato Eaters, a magnificent depiction of simple peasant life in rural Holland, now widely acknowledged as his first true masterpiece. The place, its people and its surrounding landscape clearly left a huge impression on the artist. Sketching in the open air, he developed a deep connection not only with the landscape and its windmills, corn fields, church towers and thatch-roofed cottages, but equally with the impoverished agricultural workers who tilled the land and weavers who sweated over their looms. In fact, his desire to paint these rural people was a major factor behind his move to Nuenen. By the time he washed up here in 1883 at the age of 30, Van Gogh had tried his hand at a variety of jobs with little success. He had brief stints as a minister, teacher and art dealer, but his disposition and limited social skills meant that none of these roles lasted long. His relationship with his father was always fraught, frequently disagreeing on religious matters and the general direction of his life, but despite this he resolved to move back to their house and focus on his painting. Van Gogh’s father worked as the minister of Nuenen’s Reformed Church, which features in Vincent’s painting Congregation leaving the Reformed The New European January 4-January 10, 2018 43

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The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh in Den 1885 Photos: Bosch Cover Images

The Noordbrabants Museum in the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (more commonly known as Den Bosch) in Brabant currently hosts an exhibition about Loving Vincent, displaying dozens of paintings used within it. Van Gogh naturally features in the museum’s permanent collection too, with Watermill at Kollen being the museum’s latest acquisition of ten paintings. Another current exhibition here, Van Gogh Examined, uses cutting edge technology to forensically highlight the way he has altered the composition of several of his paintings. Van Gogh frequently re-used his canvasses, which gives art experts valuable insights into his process.

Church in Nuenen. Van Gogh painted the church to please his mother, after an accident prevented her from attending Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, 1884 service where she was a regular. The painting now hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the bulk of his work. It was one of two paintings to be recovered in Naples in September 2016 after it was believed to have been stolen by the Mafia. Today Nuenen is a small town, midway between Eindhoven and Helmond, with a population of 22,000. Despite offering 21 sights associated with the artist, collected under the banner of ‘Van Gogh Village’, it is still some distance removed from the tourist trail, possibly because none of Van Gogh’s works are on display here. Across the road there is a chip shop opportunistically named ‘The Potato Eaters’, but otherwise there are few concessions to tourism and Nuenen appears little changed since Van Gogh’s time. You can wander around and take in the beautiful but bleak landscape which inspired Van Gogh, featuring in many of his paintings. Besides the church and the Van Goghs’ parsonage (now in private hands), there is the outhouse where his parents forced him to sleep and use as his studio, the postmaster’s house, the view across the marshland of what’s now the Broek Nature Reserve and the avenue of poplars he painted. Next door to the parsonage sits the house of Margot Begemann, the daughter of the owners of a small linen and damask mill. Van Gogh and Begemann soon fell in love with each other, while Begemann took over his mother’s knitting circle during a period of convalescence. She is thought to have been the only woman who ever loved Vincent, but sadly a combination of her being the next door neighbour in a small, conservative 19th century town and also a Catholic (Van Gogh’s parents were devoutly Protestant) meant that any romance went entirely unrequited. Begemann was so distressed by their ‘Romeo and Juliet circumstances’ that she tried to poison herself. Van Gogh

Avenue of Poplars in Autumn, 1884 ►►Turn to page 42 44 January 4-January 10, 2018 The New European

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Weaver Fac- ing Left with Despite rubbing Spinning shoulders with Wheel, 1884 leading lights of the Impressionism movement and producing hundreds of his most celebrated works in France, Van Gogh died having sold just one single painting to his friend Anna Boch ►►From page 41

rescued her, taking her to the doctor. All of which heaps further poignancy on his tragic life story. The focal storytelling hub of Van Gogh’s time in Brabant is the cleverly- named Vincentre, an excellent small museum with three floors of exhibits, including an interactive recreation of his studio and a poignant short film which manages to capture both the painter’s despair and hope at this point in his life. After the death of his father, Van Gogh left his homeland for Antwerp where he enrolled briefly at the Art Academy before setting his sights on Paris, the epicentre of the serious art world. Despite rubbing shoulders with leading lights of the Impressionism movement and producing hundreds of his most celebrated works in France, he died having sold just one single painting for the princely sum of 400 Francs to his friend Anna Boch. Near the remains of an enormous lime tree in Nuenen’s village square there’s a Modernist monument to Van Gogh. This stark, almost brutalist, basalt millstone with its simple inscription was only erected in 1932, four decades after his death, by renowned Amsterdam sculptor Hildo Krop. A simple reminder that even in his homeland, perhaps the world’s most famous artist of all time was scarcely acknowledged until well after his lifetime. Netherlands Visiting Nuenen ■■Jools Stone is a freelance travel, music and arts writer based in Brighton. Visit his sites: www.joolsstone.com and www. railwaystays.com Germany There is no train station in Nuenen, of his paintings such as his but in classic Dutch fashion you 1890 work Sunday in Eindhoven ■■For more information, visit Vincentre: Amsterdam can reach the village by bike. And and he gave painting lessons in the www.vangoghvillagenuenen.nl there is an aesthetically compelling house of retired goldsmith reason to explore the area by night. and amateur painter Antoon ■■The Loving Vincent exhibition at the Just outside Eindhoven, artist Daan Hermans. Noordbrabants Museum is on until 28 Roosegaarde has created a special He would scarcely recognise the city January: www.hetnoordbrabantsmuseum. illuminated, kilometre-long bike path now of course, which owes much nl/ inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night, of its prosperity to the success of lit with thousands of swirling, green electronics giant Philips which was ■■Learn more about the Brabant region at Den Bosch solar powered LEDs. founded in 1891 and soon saw the www.visitholland.com The Van Gogh Roosegaarde Cycle city’s population mushrooming to Path is part of a 335 kilometre Van over 100,00 by 1935. ■■You can reach Holland with a DFDS Tilburg Gogh cycle route network across Today Eindhoven is characterised by ferry. DFDS operates services from Dover North Brabant connecting many of a raft of hyper-modern architecture to Dunkirk and Dover to Calais, offering up Zundert Nuenen the key sights. such as Italian architect Massimiliano Eindhoven to 54 daily sailings, with prices from £39 Brussels According to a Vincentre tour guide, Fuksas’ striking space age structure each way. www.dfds.co.uk Van Gogh’s principle interest in called simply ‘the Blob’ and hip Eindhoven was the town’s prostitutes, dining spots like design gallery / but Eindhoven featured in a number restaurant Kazerne.