Vincent van Gogh is world-famous. Did you know that in 1883, Van Gogh spent three months living in Drenthe? This was a short yet significant period in his life. Here, he developed his passion for painting.
Artist friends recommended that Van Gogh visit Drenthe to…
Vincent van Gogh is world-famous. Did you know that in 1883, Van Gogh spent three months living in Drenthe? This was a short yet significant period in his life. Here, he developed his passion for painting.
Artist friends recommended that Van Gogh visit Drenthe to be inspired by the primeval landscape and the Drenthe peat labourers. There are vista panels just like this one in various locations throughout the Drenthe landscape. Looking through the panels, you look into the landscape as if through Vincent van Gogh's eyes standing in the places that inspired him.
Church Zweeloo
Vincent van Gogh arrived in Zweeloo early on the morning of 1 November 1883. He hitched a ride with proprietor Hendrik Scholte, who he stayed with in Nieuw-Amsterdam. On the outskirts of the village of Zweeloo stands a little thirteenth-century church, depicted here. It still looks much the same as it did in Van Gogh’s time.
Van Gogh wrote of the little church: ‘I came by an old church, exactly like, exactly like l’eglise de Greville from the painting by Millet from Luxembourg, and here, instead of the farmer with the spade from the painting, a shepherd with a flock of sheep came along the hedge.’
In Drenthe, Van Gogh is in the process of seeking his painting style. He looks at how others paint. He is often reminded of another artist’s work. The same is true here. Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) is one of the innovators in art.
Van Gogh came to Zweeloo hoping to meet other artists. But there were no artists. Vincent walked back to Nieuw-Amsterdam with the intention of doing some drawing along the way.
He wrote: ‘Drew an old lassie at the Spinning Wheel in a small inn, […] dark silhouette against a light window […]’. ‘[…]in the muddy mess such a rugged figure - the shepherd - a batch of egg-shaped masses, half wool, half mud, colliding, crowding one another.’
THESE VISTA PANELS ARE PART OF THE THREE SIGNPOSTED VAN GOGH CYCLING ROUTES.
THE ROUTES CAN BE DOWNLOADED AT
