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Lot Essay
In December 1883, van Gogh returned to Brabant, the province in which he had grown up. He stayed with his parents who were then living in the town of Nuenen, but later rented a room from the sexton of the local Catholic church, which he used as his studio.
After he had finished work on a series of harvest landscapes which had been commissioned by Mr Hermans to decorate his dining room, van Gogh began work on a series of still-lifes. He had at this time undertaken to teach several eager pupils, a fact which he reported to his brother Theo in one of his letters: 'I now have three people in Eindhoven who want to learn to paint and whom I am teaching to paint still-life' (The Complete Letters of van Gogh, vol. II, London, 1958, L. 385).
The pupils he refers to in this letter were the aforementioned Mr Hermans, Anton Kerssemakers, a tanner, and Willem van de Wakker, a postal worker. Dimmen Gestel, a printer from whom van Gogh had ordered the stone for the lithograph of the potato-eaters (de la Faille, no. F.1616) joined the group in 1885.
'Last week I painted still-life day after day with the people who paint at Eindhoven' (op. cit., L. 387). Many of these still-lifes were done in van Gogh's studio, whereas others could have been done at Kerssemakers studio or at Herman's house. They reveal how his treatment of ordinary objects reflects his equally sober evocation of peasant existence.
'That new acquaintance, the tanner whom I told you about, applies himself wonderfully...Hermans has so many beautiful things, old jars and other antiques, that I want to ask you if I could oblige you by painting for your room a still-life of some of these objects...just today he told me that if I wanted to paint for myself a picture of things that were still too difficult for him, I could take them with me to the studio. Please give me an answer to this, and if you like, I shall make one for you, and I will pick out the best things' (op. cit.).
After he had finished work on a series of harvest landscapes which had been commissioned by Mr Hermans to decorate his dining room, van Gogh began work on a series of still-lifes. He had at this time undertaken to teach several eager pupils, a fact which he reported to his brother Theo in one of his letters: 'I now have three people in Eindhoven who want to learn to paint and whom I am teaching to paint still-life' (The Complete Letters of van Gogh, vol. II, London, 1958, L. 385).
The pupils he refers to in this letter were the aforementioned Mr Hermans, Anton Kerssemakers, a tanner, and Willem van de Wakker, a postal worker. Dimmen Gestel, a printer from whom van Gogh had ordered the stone for the lithograph of the potato-eaters (de la Faille, no. F.1616) joined the group in 1885.
'Last week I painted still-life day after day with the people who paint at Eindhoven' (op. cit., L. 387). Many of these still-lifes were done in van Gogh's studio, whereas others could have been done at Kerssemakers studio or at Herman's house. They reveal how his treatment of ordinary objects reflects his equally sober evocation of peasant existence.
'That new acquaintance, the tanner whom I told you about, applies himself wonderfully...Hermans has so many beautiful things, old jars and other antiques, that I want to ask you if I could oblige you by painting for your room a still-life of some of these objects...just today he told me that if I wanted to paint for myself a picture of things that were still too difficult for him, I could take them with me to the studio. Please give me an answer to this, and if you like, I shall make one for you, and I will pick out the best things' (op. cit.).