Etten-Leur

‘And in my opinion, ye and I can do no better than to work after Dutch nature (figure and landscape). Then we are ourselves, then we feel t'home, then we are in our element.’

Vincent to his painter friend Anthon van Rappard, Etten, Saturday 15 October 1881.

Reverend Van Gogh was a Reformed minister in Etten between 1875 and 1882. Vincent visited regularly, usually because he was broke. So too in April 1881, when he returned home. But this turned out to be a tipping point: Vincent had decided to become an artist and set up his first studio in the rectory. He made hundreds of sketches and drawings in the nine months he lived here. These now hang in museums around the world.