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and it was at about this time that he began to draw the miners, depicting their grim conditions and this seems to have been the turning-point which would lead him toward his final choice of career.
Late in the year 1880, aged 27 Van Gogh moved to live with his parents at Etten and began to study anatomy and perspective, supported by a monthly 100 francs allowance from his brother Theo. 1881 finds him on the move again, this time renting a studio in The Hague where he continued to practice his drawing and painting skills.
It was in early 1882 that Vincent met Clasina Maria Hoornik, a prostitute also known as Sien. Already a mother, she was pregnant when she moved in with him. Their volatile relationship, doubtless exacerbated by abject poverty, lasted only about eighteen months, but during that time both Sien and the children served as models for copious drawings, and early experimentation with oils, as van Gogh honed his developing talent.
Alone once again, with another personal failure behind him, late 1883 saw the artist on the move again, to Drenthe in the northern Netherlands, drawing and painting all the while, and later back with his parents, by now in Nuenen.
By 1884, inspired by the work of Millet whom he much admired, Van Gogh had settled on the idea of painting peasant life, but the resulting drab canvases he was sending to Theo became a cause of tension between the brothers.
The Paris market of the time was demanding the bright pallettes of the impressionists. Although it could be of no comfort to Vincent at the time, his brother's admonishment may paradoxically have been the seed from which his subsequent greatness was to grow and flourish.
But for now he pursued his theme, and in April 1885 he completed "The potato eaters", which would later be hailed the first Van Gogh masterpiece. Despite the criticism of others he was pleased with the work and seemed to move forward with greater certainty. next
