La canonica di Nuenen

This is the parsonage in the Brabant village of Nuenen where Van Gogh's father served as the Protestant minister, and where Vincent moved back in with his parents in his early 30s. The house was also where his trouble with the family played out. He thought of himself as a peasant painter and of them as people keeping up appearances. In March 1885 his father dropped dead of a heart attack at the door of this house. Vincent worked out of the laundry room at the back, painting the local weavers and diggers in the brown, earthy tones of his Dutch years, with Paris and its brighter palette still two years ahead. He sent this small view of the house to his brother Theo that October.