Person    | Male  Born 30/3/1853  Died 29/7/1890

Vincent van Gogh

Categories: Art, Seriously Famous

Countries: France, Netherlands

Vincent came to London in June 1873 aged 20 as an art dealer, in the firm Goupil. He was in England for two and a half years during which he had two short periods working in the Paris branch. Goupils were in Southampton Street and then the nearby Bedford Street, both off the Strand. He was not good with the customers and was too open with his opinions of the art so in Spring 1876 he was sacked.

When he first arrived in England he very quickly found lodgings in Hackford Road, Brixton. His letters reveal that he walked a lot in London and would walk daily from home to his work, crossing Westminster Bridge twice a day, in a top hat, the whole journey being done in a very fast 45 minutes. The view from this bridge prompted him to write about how he loved London.

He fell in love with his landlady's daughter but she rejected him and married another lodger. It was while he was in London that he started drawing, although at that time he had no stated ambition to become an artist. It was also while here that he gave his first sermon, at the Richmond Methodist Church. His obsession with religion and his depression may have contributed to his dismissal from Goupils. This happened during one of his Paris periods and he decided to return to England. He found a job for a month as a teacher in Ramsgate and then relocated with the school to Isleworth. He then briefly worked in a church but he left England for good at Christmas 1876.

See Making a Mark for a map showing all his London locations.

KentAlive has details of the house in Ramsgate where van Gogh stayed, aged 23.

Born in the southern Netherlands. Committed suicide in Saint-Rémy, in the South of France.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Vincent van Gogh

Commemorated ati

Vincent van Gogh - SW9

Vincent van Gogh, 1853 - 1890, painter, lived here 1873 - 1874. Greater Londo...

Read More

Other Subjects

Charles Maresco Pearce

Charles Maresco Pearce

Artist. Grant Waters has a review of his art which was not known to us before. A number of his London scenes are available on-line. Charles Maresco Pearce was born on 11 June 1874 in South Kensing...

Person, Art

1 memorial
William Shipley

William Shipley

Drawing master, social reformer and inventor. Wikipedia's page differs significantly from the Oxford Dictionary of National Bigraphy. They agree that he was born in Kent and trained as a painter. H...

Person, Art, Science

1 memorial
Theodore and Elsie Crombie

Theodore and Elsie Crombie

With the information provided by Kwok Li (see Miss Rose’s page) we found two items on-line which tell us a bit about the owners of Miss Rose, Theodore and Elsie Crombie: Publication for sale: “Apo...

Group, Art, History

1 memorial
Paul Cezanne

Paul Cezanne

Impressionist artist. Paul Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence. He studied at the Academie Suisse in Paris, and Camille Pissaro became his major influence. Amongst his best known paintings are 'The...

Person, Art, Seriously Famous, France

1 memorial
Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing

Artist. Gillian C. Wearing, CBE, RA, was born on 6 December 1963 in  Birmingham, Warwickshire, (now Birmingham, West Midlands), a daughter of Bryan J. Wearing and Jean R. Wearing née Gregory. She c...

Person, Art, Sculpture

1 memorial