Van Gogh in

Drenthe

Vincent vertrok in het najaar van 1883 vanuit Den Haag naar Drenthe, waar hij drie maanden zou verblijven. Toch heeft de relatief korte periode die hij hier verbleef een onuitwisbare indruk op hem gemaakt.

Inspired by people including his friend Anthon van Rappard (1858–1892) and partly motivated by the idea that life in the country would be less costly, Vincent arrived in Hoogeveen by train from The Hague on 11 September 1883. Having said goodbye to his girlfriend, Sien and her children, he moved into a guest house run by Albertus Hartsuiker (1827–1902). After about two weeks in Hoogeveen, which he spent getting to know the area, Vincent decided to travel deeper into Drenthe. He took a canal boat southeast toward the nearby villages of Nieuw-Amsterdam and Veenoord and found accommodation in a guest house run by Hendrik Scholte (1841–1915). He explored the surrounding countryside from there, for instance taking a day trip to Zweeloo.

During this time, Vincent corresponded with his brother Theo about Theo’s job with the art dealers Goupil & Cie in Paris. Vincent wanted his brother to join him in Drenthe and work alongside him as an artist but Theo chose to stay in Paris.

Despite the briefness of Vincent’s stay in Drenthe, it was important for his development in several respects. It was a lonely time in which he had no help from or contact with other artists but Drenthe’s landscape, its inhabitants and its singularity made an indelible impression on him, which he captured in paintings, drawings and watercolours. Although Vincent wrote of being influenced by the seventeenth-century Dutch masters, the Barbizon school painters and artists such as Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Drenthe was his greatest source of inspiration during this period.

Vincent left Nieuw-Amsterdam on 4 December to return to Hoogeveen, where he would board a train for Nuenen the next day.