Van Gogh in

Pegwell Bay

When he was teaching at Stokes’s school, Vincent regularly took his pupils for walks. He wrote to his brother Theo about an exceptionally long one on 27 April 1876, which must have ended at Pegwell Bay:

“It was to an inlet of the sea, and the road to it led through the fields of young wheat and along hedgerows of hawthorn etc. When we got there we had on our left a high, steep wall of sand and stone, as high as a two-storey house, on top of which stood old, gnarled hawthorn bushes. Their black or grey, lichen-covered stems and branches had all been bent to the same side by the wind, also a few elder bushes. The ground we walked on was completely covered with large grey stones, chalk and shells. To the right the sea, as calm as a pond, reflecting the delicate grey sky where the sun was setting. It was ebb tide and the water was very low.” Read the complete letter