Aziz Art September 2016

Van Gogh's home in Cuesmes in
1880; while there he decided to
become an artist
To support Van Gogh's religious
convictions and his desire to
become a pastor, in 1877 the
family sent him to stay with his
uncle Johannes Stricker, a
respected theologian, in
Amsterdam.Van Gogh prepared
for the University of Amsterdam
theology entrance examination;
he failed the exam, and left his
uncle's house in July 1878. He
undertook, but also failed, a threemonth
course at a Protestant
missionary school in Laken, near
Brussels.
In January 1879 Van Gogh took a
post as a missionary at Petit-
Wasmes in the coal-mining
district of Borinage in Belgium.
To show support for his
impoverished congregation, he
gave up his comfortable
lodgings at a bakery to a
homeless person, and moved
to a small hut where he slept on
straw.His squalid living conditions
did not endear him to church
authorities, who dismissed him
for "undermining the dignity of
the priesthood". He then walked
the 75 kilometres (47 mi) to
Brussels, returned briefly to
Cuesmes in the Borinage, but gave
in to pressure from his parents to
return home to Etten. He stayed
there until around March
1880,which caused concern and
frustration for his parents. There
was particular conflict between Van
Gogh and his father, who
considered committing him to the
lunatic asylum at Geel.
Returning to Cuesmes in August
1880, Van Gogh lodged with a
miner until October.He became
interested in the people and scenes
around him, and recorded them in
drawings after Theo's suggestion
that he take up art in earnest. He
travelled to Brussels later in the
year, to follow Theo's
recommendation that he study
with the Dutch artist Willem
Roelofs, who persuaded him – in
spite of his dislike of formal schools
of art – to attend the Académie
Royale des Beaux-Arts. He
registered at the Académie in
November 1880, where he studied
anatomy and the standard rules of
modelling and perspective