The State Lottery Office

1880

Decides to take up art in earnest

Back in Cuesmes in the Borinage, lodging with a miner, Van Gogh began, at Theo's suggestion, to draw the people and scenes around him in earnest. Later that year he went to Brussels to study with Willem Roelofs, who persuaded him to enrol at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts.

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”.

1886

Moves to Paris to join his brother Theo

Van Gogh left Antwerp to join his brother Theo, an art dealer, in Paris. So began a very fruitful and eventful Paris period: he painted some two hundred and thirty pictures there, more than anywhere else.

1888

To Arles, dreaming of a “Studio of the South”

The public still neither accepted nor bought his paintings, and in February 1888 Van Gogh left for Arles in the south of France to found a “Studio of the South”, a brotherhood of like-minded artists in which he gave Gauguin the leading role. Theo backed the plan with money.

23 October 1888

Gauguin arrives in Arles

After much pleading Gauguin arrived in Arles, and in November the two painted together: Gauguin portrayed Van Gogh in “The Painter of Sunflowers”, and their first joint outing was to the Alyscamps. At Gauguin's suggestion Vincent painted from memory, producing “Memory of the Garden at Etten”.

29 luglio 1890

Died