>> The story childhood of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, close to Breda, in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Vincent was given the name of his grandfather, and of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth. Vincent was a common name in the family: his grandfather, Vincent (1789–1874), received a degree in theology at the University of Leiden in 1811, and had six sons, three of whom became art dealers. His grandfather may have been named after his own father's uncle, a sculptor (1729–1802). 

Vincent c. 1866, approx. age 13

The painter's brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857. He had another brother, Cor, and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina "Wil". Vincent was a serious and thoughtful child. He attended the village school at Zundert from 1860, where a single Catholic teacher taught around 200 pupils. From 1861, he and his sister Anna were taught at home by a governess, until 1 October 1864, when he was placed in Jan Provily's boarding school at Zevenbergen about 24 kilometres (15 mi) away. He was distressed to leave his family home. From September 1866, he attended the new Willem II College middle school in Tilburg. Constantijn C. Huysmans, a successful artist in Paris, taught him to draw at the school and advocated a systematic approach to the subject. Vincent's interest in art began at an early age. His early drawings are well-done and expressive, but do not approach the intensity he developed in his later work. In March 1868, Van Gogh abruptly returned home. In a 1883 letter to Theo he wrote, "My youth was gloomy and cold and sterile." 

In July 1869, his uncle Cent helped him obtain a position with the art dealer Goupil & Cie in The Hague. After his training, in June 1873, Goupil transferred him to London, where he lodged at 87 Hackford Road, Stockwell, and worked at Messrs. Goupil & Co., 17 Southampton Street. This was a happy time for Vincent; he was successful at work and at 20 he earned more than his father. Theo's wife later remarked that this was the best year of his life. He fell in love with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, but was rejected when he confessed his feelings; she said she was secretly engaged to a former lodger. Vincent grew more isolated and fervent about religion. His father and uncle arranged for his transfer to Paris where he grew resentful at how art was treated as a commodity. On 1 April 1876, Goupil terminated his employment. 

Van Gogh returned to England, taking unpaid work as a supply teacher in a small boarding school in Ramsgate. When the proprietor relocated to Isleworth, Middlesex, Van Gogh moved with him.  The arrangement did not work out and he left to become a Methodist minister's assistant, following his wish to proselytise. At Christmas, he returned home and for six months took work at a bookshop in Dordrecht. He was unhappy in the position and spent his time either doodling or translating passages from the Bible into English, French and German. 

Van Gogh's home in Cuesmes in 1880; while there he decided to become an artist

According to his room-mate of the time, a young teacher named Görlitz, Van Gogh ate frugally and preferred not to eat meat. To support his new-found religious conviction and efforts to become a pastor, his family sent him to Amsterdam to study theology in May 1877. There he stayed with his uncle Jan van Gogh, a naval Vice Admiral.  Vincent prepared for the entrance examination with his uncle Johannes Stricker, a respected theologian. He failed the exam and left his uncle Jan's house in July 1878. He undertook but failed a three-month course at the Vlaamsche Opleidingsschool, a Protestant missionary school in Laeken, near Brussels. 

In January 1879, he took a post as a missionary at Petit Wasmes in the coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium. As a show of support for his impoverished congregation, he gave up his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to a homeless person, moving to a small hut where he slept on straw. The baker's wife reported hearing him sobbing at night in the hut. His squalid living conditions did not endear him to church authorities who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood". 

He then walked the 75 kilometres (47 mi) to Brussels, returned briefly to Cuesmes in the Borinage, but gave in to pressure from his parents to return home to Etten. He stayed there until around March 1880, which caused concern and frustration for his parents. There was particular conflict between Vincent and his father, who inquired about having him committed to the lunatic asylum at Geel. 

He returned to Cuesmes, where he lodged with a miner, Charles Decrucq, until October. He was interested in the people and scenes around him and recorded his time there in his drawings, following Theo's suggestion that he take up art in earnest. He travelled to Brussels later in the year, to follow Theo's recommendation to study with the prominent Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, who persuaded him—in spite of his aversion to formal schools of art—to attend the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. He registered at the Académie on 15 November 1880; he studied anatomy and the standard rules of modelling and perspective. 
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