Vincent Van gogh

# ZUNDERT
30th March 1853 — 30th July 1890

One of the most tragic lives in the history of modern art is that of Vincent van Gogh. Born in Groot-Zundert, in Dutch Brabant, near the Belgian frontier—a little village whose only interest lay in its modest body landscape of heath and peat-bogs interspersed with copses, under vast skies—he was the son of a Protestant pastor, the Reverend Theodorus van Gogh.

Vincent’s father, Theodorus, was a pastor and the son of a clergyman; his forbears for generations had been clergymen of some faith as a curate to the Bishop of Utrecht; goldsmith and painters had been among his patrons; his mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, three years younger than her husband, was the daughter of a bookseller in The Hague. Their married life was happy and uneventful.

Their marriage had begun with misfortunes; their first child, Vincent-Wilhelm, died at the age of six weeks. Fortunately, a year to the very day after his death, another son was born who was given the same names as the dead child—Vincent Willem.

Another son, ‘Theo, Vincent’s favourite brother, his support and standby through his career,—’Theo came four years after him, then followed four other brothers and sisters: Cornelia, and their sister, Anna, Elisabeth-Huberts and Willemina.

Vincent loved his family circle, but it was an atmosphere of high spirits which a quiet boy, lively as he was in other respects, could not endure easily. At times, he did not mix well with other children. His sister Elisabeth wrote of him later that ‘Not only were his little brothers and sisters like strangers to him, but he was a stranger to himself as well.’ Yet Vincent was not antisocial; he shared in the family life and showed great affection for his home circle. He found in it a warmth which no means insensitive; to the end of his days he used to recall the quiet days at the parsonage with his father—moth, affectionate and kindly.