Gogh, Vincent

(1853 -1890)

Information

Before deciding that his vocation was to be an artist, van Gogh was determined to be a Bible teacher. He was attracted to the idea of pursuing this aim in England and in 1876 he was offered a job in a small boarding school run by a Mr. Stokes at 6 Royal Road, Ramsgate. From 17th April to 12th June of that year he taught French and elementary subjects there. He seems to have enjoyed his time; his letters to his brother Theo speak of building sandcastles with the pupils and exhilarating walks in the strong wind. His artist’s eye, too, can be seen in his description of a storm at sea. In one letter he enclosed ‘a little drawing of the view from the window of the school’.
Van Gogh did not lodge in the school, but at 11 Spencer Square nearby, where he had a little room right at the top of the house. He had not been at the school long before it was moved to Isleworth. Lack of money meant that he had to walk to his new work-place, taking three days to make the journey via Canterbury and Chatham.

Quotations

Ramsgate 17th April 1876
Dear Theo,
I arrived here safely at one o’clock yesterday afternoon, and one of my first impressions was that the window of this not-very-large school looks out on the sea. It is a boarding school, and there are twenty-four boys from ten to fourteen years old. …Yesterday evening and this morning we all took a walk along the shore. Enclosed is a spray of seaweed.
The houses near the sea are mostly built of yellow brick in the style of those in the Nassaulaan in The Hague, but they are higher and have gardens full of cedars and other dark evergreens. There is a harbour full of ships enclosed by stone jetties on which one can walk. Yesterday everything was gray. …
The holidays are not yet over, so I have not had to give any lessons so far.

Did I tell you about the storm I watched recently? The sea was yellowish, especially near the shore; on the horizon a strip of light, and above it immense dark gray clouds from which the rain poured down in slanting streaks. The wind blew the dust from the little white path on the rocks into the sea and bent the blooming hawthorn bushes and wallflowers that grow on the rocks. To the right were fields of young green corn, and in the distance the town looked like the towns that Albrecht Dürer used to etch. A town with its turrets, mills, slate roofs and houses built in the Gothic style, and below, the harbour between two jetties which project far into the sea. I also saw the sea last Sunday night. Everything was dark and gray, but in the horizon the day began to dawn. It was still very early, but a lark was already singing. So were the nightingales in the gardens near the sea. In the distance shone the light from the lighthouse, the guard ship, etc.