Van Gogh in

Isleworth

Vincent ended up in Isleworth in June 1876 after the school that employed him as an assistant teacher moved there from Ramsgate.

His boss, William Port Stokes (c. 1832–1890), held out the prospect of a small salary after the move (he had previously received only room and board). By comparison, a year earlier, he had been earning £90 a year working for the art dealers Goupil & Cie. Vincent therefore had to live more modestly than he was used to. Vincent therefore had to live more modestly than he was used to. Understandably, he wrote wistfully to his brother Theo:

“There may well come a time when I look back with a certain nostalgia on the ‘excesses of Egypt’ connected with other situations, namely earning more money and being in many respects of more consequence in the world – this I foresee.” Read the complete letter

Yet Vincent was neither willing nor able to return to his former life. He was convinced that he belonged in education or the clergy and planned to work as a missionary in London or even in South America. His letters clearly show that religion was becoming increasingly important to him. In August 1876, he wrote to Theo of his deepest wish:

“to be bound to Christ with unbreakable bonds and to feel those bonds. To be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Read the complete letter

A few days after arriving in Isleworth, Vincent met the Rev. Thomas Slade-Jones (1829–1883). Like Stokes, he ran a boarding school. Vincent decided to change employers and went to work for Jones as an assistant teacher; he also taught Sunday school at “ Mr. Jones’s church ” and was eventually allowed to preach there. In December 1876, Vincent left Isleworth to spend the holidays with his parents in Etten. There, he plotted a new course for the future. He gave up teaching, never to return to England again. Instead, he ventured off to Dordrecht.