Stephanie's TY blog :): Geography Post 1- Zundert

Zundert is the birthplace of famous painter Vincent Van Gogh. He was born on 30th March in 1853 in a little house on Zunderts Main Street "Markt 29". Unfortunatly the house was to old to preserve but there is a small plaque there to remember him. In 2007 builders started renovating the house and was opened in 2008. He was the son of Anna Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus van Gogh, a minister of the Dutch reformed church. Van Gogh was given the same name as his grandfather. The practice of reusing names was common at the time.The Van Gogh family were highly interested in art and religion and took it very seriously. Vincent had two brothers, Theodorus and Cor and he had three sisters, Elizabeth,Anna and Willemina.
Vincent was a very serious and thoughtful child. He went to the Zundert Village School from 1860. Vincent was then home-schooled by a governess from 1861 until 1st October, he then went to elementary boarding school in Zevenbergen, the Netherlands, about 20miles from Zundert. He became very distressed because he missed his family. He then attended a middle school in Tilburg, Netherlands, there he was shown how to draw by Constantijn C. Huysmans who was a famous painter at the time. In March 1869 Van Gogh left school and returned home.
In July 1869, his uncle helped him get a job with the art dealer Goupil & Cie in The Hague. After his training, in June 1873, Goupil transferred him to London, where he stayed at 87 Hackford Road, Brixton and worked at Messrs. Goupil & Co. This was a happy point in his life because he was successful at work and was earning more then his father.
He fell in love with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, but when he finally told her he loved her, she rejected him, saying that she was already secretly engaged to a former lodger. His father and uncle sent him to Paris to work in a dealership. On 1 April 1876, he became unemployed.
In April 1881, Van Gogh moved to the Etten countryside with his parents where he continued drawing. Through the summer he spent loads of time walking and talking with his cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker. She was the daughter of his mother's older sister and Johannes Stricker, who had shown warmth towards the artist.He proposed to her but she rejected him.
In Nuenen, he devoted himself to drawing and would pay boys to bring him birds' nests for something to draw and made many sketches of weavers in their cottages. In autumn 1884, Margot Begemann, a neighbor's daughter(ten years older than he was), often accompanied the artist while he was painting. She fell in love, they decided to marry, but the idea was opposed by both families. Margot took an overdose of strychnine as she was so upset. She was saved when Van Gogh rushed her to a nearby hospital. On 26 March 1885, his father died of a heart attack and the artist grieved deeply.
That August, his work was exhibited for the first time, in the windows of a paint dealer, Leurs, in The Hague.In November 1885, he moved to Antwerp and rented a small room above a paint dealer's shop in the Rue des Images. He had little money and ate poorly, preferring to spend what money his brother Theo sent on painting materials and models.

Van Gogh aged 13 Theo aged 21