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Van Gogh in Lodging house Rijken
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Tolburgstraat (nr?)

Tolbrugstraat A 312 (Waterzijde)

The original buildings of the street where Vincent lived no longer exist. A plaque at the beginning of the street indicates that he spent time there.

Van Gogh in

Lodging house Rijken

  1. 9 Jan. 1877 1877
     - 2 May 1877

In Dordrecht, Vincent lived in a boarding house in the Tolbrugstraat Waterzijde. It was run by Pieter Rijken and his wife, Maria Aelmans, above their grocery store. His employer, Blussé & Van Braam, had a warehouse next door, and Vincent probably found his accommodation through his boss, Pieter Kornelis Braat.
The couple already had three lodgers when Vincent arrived, so he had to share a room with another young man, Paulus Coenraad Görlitz (1851–1921). Together, they smoked pipes and talked about life, took walks, attended church services and visited the Dordrechts Museum. Their room was on the first floor at the back of the house and overlooked the gardens of the houses on the Groenmarkt and Varkensmarkt. Vincent wrote to his brother Theo:

“The window of my room looks out over gardens with pine trees and poplars etc. and the back of old houses, including a large one covered with ivy, ‘a strange old plant is the ivy green’, said Dickens. There can be something so serious and rather sombre in that view, and you should see it with the morning sun on it.” Read the complete letter

With Görlitz’s permission, Vincent covered the walls of his room with assorted prints, in their margins he had written biblical passages, including his favourite: “Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Vincent read the Bible as much as he could, desiring to study theology and conscious of the fact that he still had much to learn. His roommate regularly found him dozing over his Bible. The Rijkens considered Vincent, with his pious, austere, withdrawn behaviour, an odd fellow.

Useful links

Relevant letters from Vincent

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  1. M.J. Brusse

    Onder de menschen: Vincent van Gogh als boekverkoopersbediende I-III
    In: Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant 31 mei 1914, 2 juni 1914, 4 juni 1914 (later opgenomen in Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Verzamelde brieven, 1973)
  2. E.H. Cossee

    Vincent van Gogh en kerkelijk Dordrecht
    In: Kwartaal & teken 6- 1 (1980), pp. 1-5
  3. Herinneringen van C. Görlitz

    Brief aan Frederik van Eeden, Nijmegen, 3 februari 1891
    (te raadplegen in: documentatiemap ‘Dordrecht’ in het Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)
  4. Ad Molendijk

    Vincent van Gogh in Dordrecht
    In: Kwartaal & Teken 16-2 (1990), pp. 3-10