Status Updates From Living with Vincent van Gog...

After a brief time in Antwerp, Belgium, where his work began to demonstrate the use of the brighter colors and looser brushwork so familiar to us today, Van Gogh moved again, this time to France where his creativity would be sparked even more.

Van Gogh in the north of the Netherlands, late 1883: “Drenthe is superb but staying there depends on many things - depends on whether one has the money for it, depends on whether one can endure the loneliness.” [it is nice to have these insights from Van Gogh’s letters]

Van Gogh by 1881 has lived in the Netherlands, The Hague, England and France. He was fluent in English, French and German by his 20s though he completed only 5 years of school and was not a good student. At one point, he planned to be an evangelical preacher, not successful. Throughout, he sketched his surroundings, many reproduced here.

Interesting so far, though still in the introduction. As The author indicates, in a time when most people stayed where or close to where they were born, Van Gogh travelled quite extensively through the Netherlands, England, Belgium, and France. And he was influenced by all of the different physical environments he visited and lived in.