Vincent van Gogh, the son of the minister, was born in Zundert on 30 March 1853. He grew up in the protection of the village rectory. Vincent was "different. For example, he was the second ‘Vincent van Gogh’ to be born (his brother and namesake died exactly one year before his birth), was a Protestant child in a predominantly Catholic community, and did not attend school but was educated at home.
Anyone curious about Vincent's life and work cannot ignore Brabant. He lived and worked there most of his life, and it shaped him as a person and painter. Vincent was always homesick for Brabant, where his great love of nature and farm life was born.
In Zundert, Vincent's native soil is still visible and tangible. Exactly at the site of his birthplace you now visit Vincent van GoghHuis. Through the digital hearing and viewing experience, you imagine yourself in the living room of the Van Gogh family and discover what occupied him.
Vincent grew up as the son of Pastor Theodorus van Gogh who preached in this church in Zundert. Initially, he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. But after an unsuccessful career as an evangelist in the Borinage, a Belgian mining region, he turned away from the institution of church and his faith became a private matter.
The cemetery still contains the grave of Vincent's oldest brother who was born dead. That was exactly one year before the birth of Vincent himself. Emotionally, that grave had little meaning for Vincent. For him, the cemetery was rather one of the places where he played as a child and where he enjoyed the silence.
The village school used to stand at the corner of the market, opposite Hotel de Roskam. Vincent was taught there from January to October 1861. However, he was removed from school because his dealings with the village children apparently made him too rough. When Benno Stokvis inquired in the village in 1926, the villagers remembered him mainly as a quiet and ordinary boy.
March 30, 1853, Vincent was born on this spot. His birthplace was replaced in 1903 by the current building, which has housed the Vincent van GoghHuis since 2008. Vincent enjoyed a carefree childhood. Vincent left Zundert permanently in July 1869. But he often thought back on it with melancholy.
On the long walks the family took, he conceived his love of nature. Vincent's sister Lies wrote her romanticized memories of her brother and their childhood in Zundert in 1910. It shows how much Vincent loved everything that grows and blooms. This strong love for the landscape and the countryside would never let him go.
