Van Gogh in Paris (1875)
Echo’s and Faith
Note: This is part II of a series on Vincent van Gogh’s early adult life. You can read each story separately, but if you feel like you’re missing out, check out the other parts.
Prologue: A Tiny Grave for Vincent van Gogh
Next to the church in Zundert, lie the remains of Vincent van Gogh, the firstborn child of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Carbentus. Theodorus — or Dorus buried his son next to the church where he was parson. The small, red-brick Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1805. Conform with a spirit of frugality, the front and rear windows were bricked in because of the introduction of the “Window Tax” under French rule in 1812. Surrounded by thick oak and plane trees, clouds of starlings often hoovered around the church. Despite its sober appearance, the church had a certain peaceful natural beauty. This of course couldn’t settle the pain, but it was at least close to home and the boy could rest in peace here.
Dorus was a popular member of the clergy and he and his wife were loved and embraced by the local community. Infant mortality rates were high in the secluded Dutch town, but it was hard not to be moved by the loss of a firstborn child. Dorus’ flock mourned with the Van Gogh family. After prayers were said and the boy was trusted to the earth, a nothingness, a void opened up within the Van Gogh household. But life went on, and as Spring set in Anna fell pregnant again. Exactly a year after the death of her firstborn, on the 30th of March, Anna gave birth to another boy — Vincent.
Despite growing up carrying the name of his stillborn brother, Vincent van Gogh’s name transcended any psychological or emotional dedication from his parents but was a matter of course in Dutch society.¹ Dorus’ father and brother (who went by the nickname Cent), were also called Vincent. Yet his brother and the tiny grave next to the church where his father preached, cast a shadow over Vincent’s youth. Life had refused to enter his brother, at the churchyard Vincent looked in a reflection. Members of Vincent’s family describe a certain iciness from his mother towards him.³ Perhaps she stayed detached from him, suspicious Death would deceive her again?
The backdrop to Vincent’s upbringing was the village, the church, and his father as a pillar of a community. The family lived just down the street in the rectory. Vincent played with his brothers and sisters and made sandcastles in the garden with Theo. They had a dog, pigeons, and a couple of goats which the family kept for milk.
It was a modest life compared to the wealthy, art dealing side of the family, but contented. Dorus’ brother Cent made a fortune out of art and became a partner of the firm Goupil & Cie in Paris in 1861. Since he was childless, he perhaps saw successors in his nephews? Culture also played an important role in the rectory in Zundert. The children took music lessons and the family owned a piano. Prints of artworks hung on the walls.
Religious convictions within the Van Gogh household were defined by Dorus, who during his years at university was introduced to the ‘Groningen Theology’. A current within the Dutch Reformed Church that sought the middle ground between orthodox Calvinist thinking and contemporary rationalism. According to the dogma, the life of Jesus Christ should serve as the prime example for humanity and the educational duties of the church³. The concept of revelation became ‘mobile’, not dependent on the Bible and focused on individual experience. It also recognised the (divine) beauty of nature. Many followers of the Dogma were socially involved and worked to improve the conditions of the poor.
Dorus’ religious conviction instilled in Vincent a great sense of compassion for his fellow man and above all a great love for nature. After Vincent’s time in London, he increasingly sought to identify himself with his father. He would aspire to continue the great chain of the priesthood, from his grandfather to his father, to him.
Paris, an Echo Chamber
In 1875, Goupil & Cie changed business direction at their London branch and opened a new art gallery around the corner from their warehouse where they sold prints. Because of Vincent’s experience in The Hague and his work in Paris, the young Dutchman should have been a valuable asset to the new store. But his solitary ways, moodiness, and increasing religious fanaticism were frowned upon by his employer. His uncle Cent, who secured his position at Goupil & Cie also got wind of his nephew’s behaviour. A change of atmosphere from the grey, damp city was suggested, and Goupil & Cie transferred Vincent to Paris.
…I crossed Westminster Bridge every morning and evening and I know what it looks like when the sun’s setting behind Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, and what it’s like early in the morning, and in the winter with snow and fog. When I saw the painting I felt how much I love London. Yet I believe it’s good for me to be away from it.⁴
Vincent took up lodgings in Montmartre where he lived with his colleague, Harry Gladwell. A British man, and another outcast within the company because of his looks.⁵ But Vincent got along with him well, reading him passages from the bible deep into the Parisian nights. Religion was becoming the all-encompassing factor in Vincent’s life, and his career as an art dealer became an afterthought. He roamed from Parisian church to church on Sundays. In Vincent’s letters to his brother, he continued quoting long passages from the bible, a habit he developed in London. After Vincent’s death, his family edited out some of these lengthy passages out of fear they would shift the focus of the letters from their literary quality to religious zeal.⁶
This was not completely unjustified, from the letters Vincent sent to his brother, Paul’s Corinthians are ubiquitously and obsessively quoted “Having nothing yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10). He applied the same passage in his second letter to Theo from Paris, reacting to the death of Annet Haanebeek, whom Theo had fallen in love with. “This is one of the things that, little by little, makes us “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, and that we must become”. Paul’s Corinthian’s became a panacea for Vincent. Although undoubtedly well intended, we can only guess the response of the heartbroken Theo to the rather unhelpful Biblical paradoxes of his brother.
Within the walls of the Parisian churches, some splendorous, some more modest -in the style of his father’s church in Zundert- the words of St Paul rung around in Vincent’s head like an echo chamber.
But the family combination of art dealers and priests produced a fascinating mindset in Vincent. He drew his faith from association through the wondrous collection of artworks on display in Paris. He wrote to Theo with stories of visits to the Louvre and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Inspired by Corot and Rembrandt, these visits seemed to provide an impulse to his faith. He decorated his room with lithographs of various religious artworks, like Nicholas Maes “Adoration of the Shepherds” and Johannes Bosboom’s “Cantabimus & Psallemus”.
Perhaps we can better assess Vincent’s mood not from what he wrote about this Parisian period, but rather what he didn’t write. In the letters from London we read about a Vincent in awe of his new surroundings, of nature and beauty. In his letters from Paris, there is a notable shift towards melancholy and sorrow. A one mindedness that didn’t allow notions of worldly sublime (apart from religious art), but only for dedication to Christ- and for now, without an end.
During his stay in Paris, religion turned from a household gift, to an interest, to an obsession that engulfed Vincent’s mind. The change of atmosphere his uncle and employer had concocted did not work out. Officially, Vincent’s dismissal in April 1876 from Goupil & Cie followed an unapproved Christmas Break, but even in the months leading up to the dismissal, it became clear that Vincent was unhappy where he was. According to his father, his life-view was rather “morbid” and he simply didn’t take pleasure in his work anymore.⁷ His dismissal ended his career as an art dealer.
Notes
¹ Verkade-Bruining A, De God van Vincent, Wereldbibliotheek Amsterdam 1989, P.17
² Verkade-Bruining P.18
³ Verkade-Bruining P.21
⁴ Letter 39, from http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let039/letter.html
⁵ From: https://www.gladwellpatterson.com/our-history
⁶ Ronald De Leeuw, Van Gogh Museum Journal, 1995 https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_van012199501_01/_van012199501_01_0005.php#094
⁷ See letter 65:http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let065/letter.html
