Programme 2

Supported by an allowance from his brother Theo, Vincent settled for a year in The Hague, spending days at the beach painting the sea. However, when his father discovered Vincent's relationship with Sien, he tried to have him committed. Abandoning Sien, van Gogh was on the move again, to Drenthe, and back to the grim, melancholy landscapes that had inspired his earlier paintings. With no money forcing a move back to the family in Nuenen in 1883, he again saw beauty in the lowly weavers and labourers, painting his masterpiece, Potato Eaters, in 1885, at the age of 32. But when his peasant model became pregnant, the Catholic priest banned the locals from posing for him. Impulsive and impassioned, Vincent left Holland for good. In the rough Belgian port city of Antwerp, café girls were his models, although the seedy lifestyle took its toll on his health. Without funds, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Art where he could paint nudes, but his teachers felt he had little talent. In 1886, Vincent insisted on joining Theo in Paris, who arranged for him to become a pupil at the studio of Cormon. Although the dry, academic style was not to his taste, Vincent became friends with his lead pupil, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and was soon immersed in the twilight world of prostitutes and absinthe. While in Paris, the Impressionists held sway and Vincent was exposed to a huge variety of influences from Paul Gauguin, Degas, Camille and Lucien Pissarro, Signac and Seurat. His own artistic output was prolific, with 230 paintings in two years. His wandering style reached a defining moment when he discovered Japanese prints, and the use of brighter colours was to endure. In 1888, rows with Theo led to another abrupt departure, to Arles.