Weaver

late 1881

Lessons with Anton Mauve

His second cousin Anton Mauve, the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be, took him on as a student and introduced him to watercolour. Within weeks they fell out, possibly over drawing from plaster casts.

August 1881

Proposes to his cousin Kee: “No, nay, never”

His recently widowed cousin Cornelia “Kee” Vos-Stricker, seven years his senior, came to stay in Etten with her eight-year-old son. To everyone's surprise Van Gogh declared his love and proposed; she refused: “No, nay, never.”

1882

His first paintings in oil

Soon after three weeks in hospital in June 1882, Van Gogh painted in oils for the first time, with paints bought on money borrowed from Theo, and was surprised at how good the results were. In August Theo gave him money for materials to work en plein air, and Vincent wrote that he could now “go on painting with new vigour”.

late January 1882

Life with Sien Hoornik

Van Gogh met Clasina Maria “Sien” Hoornik, a pregnant prostitute with a five-year-old daughter, and set up home with her; on learning of it, Mauve stopped answering his letters. His father pressed him to abandon Sien, and in 1883 Vincent left her and the children.

26 March 1885

Death of his father

The artist's father, the minister Theodorus van Gogh, died of a heart attack.