Attraction and rejection
As soon as Vincent decided to become a painter, at the age of twenty-seven, he set out to meet other artists and models.
Vincent was not an easy person to know. Friendships were a roller-coaster of attraction and rejection. His self-centred behaviour sometimes led to massive rows.
The toff and the drifter
Anthon, Ridder van Rappard (1858-1892) in c. 1880
At the urging of his brother Theo, in 1880 Vincent visited the young Dutch painter Anthon van Rappard, who was studying at the art academy in Brussels. The first meeting between this sprig of the nobility and Vincent the ‘drifter’ was rather awkward, but soon they became friends.
The day we met in Brussels is still as fresh in my mind as if it were only yesterday. He arrived at my room at 9 a.m. We didn’t get on to begin with, but we did later, when we’d worked together a few times.
Anthon van Rappard to Vincent’s mother, Anna Van Gogh-Carbentus, 1890
Sien, model and companion
Vincent van Gogh, Head of a Woman, 1882
Vincent met Sien Hoornik in The Hague. She became his model and his partner. They lived together for over a year. Vincent’s family were not happy about it because Sien had been a prostitute…
Vincent van Gogh, Woman seated, 1882. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Vincent described his relationship with Sien as two unhappy people sharing each other’s company to make the unbearable bearable.
‘I do hope, brother, that you don’t think badly of Sien and me. That lass has put up with my disagreeable side, and in many respects she understands me better than others.’
To his brother Theo from The Hague, May 27, 1882
Vincent van Gogh, Baby, 1882 - 1883
When Vincent finally went to Drenthe in September −on his own− he did what he could to provide for Sien and the children. He left with a heavy heart, finding it particularly hard to leave little Willem, to whom he was as attached as if the child was his.
One of these rows was with Anthon van Rappard, who criticized Vincent’s first great masterpiece: The Potato Eaters. His friend’s criticism really stung. Vincent was furious and wrote:
'I’ll stick to my guns a bit, though, because I don’t want the thing to keep dragging on, and I don’t want a grudging friendship. Either cordial or over.'
To Anthon van Rappard from Nuenen, c. July 16, 1885
Criticism
Lithograph of The Potato Eaters, 1885
Vincent and Van Rappard remained in touch for five years, mainly by letter. They encouraged one another, but they also criticized each other’s work. Vincent worked in Van Rappard’s studio in Brussels for a while, and he also visited his friend in the Netherlands. Van Rappard, in turn, went to see Vincent in Etten and Nuenen. They worked together in the countryside.
Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885
It all went wrong in 1885. Vincent had just completed his Potato Eaters, which he considered a masterpiece. Proudly, he sent Van Rappard a lithograph of this painting. Van Rappard responded critically:
‘You’ll agree with me that such work isn’t intended seriously. You can do better than this — fortunately; but why, then, observe and treat everything so superficially? (…) That coquettish little hand of that woman at the back, how untrue! (…) And why must the woman on the left have a sort of little pipe stem with a cube on it for a nose?’-Anthon van Rappard to Vincent van Gogh, May 24, 1885
While Vincent and Van Rappard set their disagreement aside in their correspondence, neither felt the need to visit the other again.
‘When I say to you that I want to remain friends, and mean it, though, it’s because I see in you an endeavour that I regard very highly.’
To Anthon van Rappard from Nuenen, c. August 18, 1885
