After living and working in Drenthe in 1883, Vincent moved back to live with his parents in Nuenen. He first set up a small studio behind his father’s rectory. Soon, however, he would move to a larger studio. Behind the doors of this home, tensions often grew. Within two years after arriving, Vincent would express the need to leave. Which was, as Vincent put it, nobody’s fault, really. It was because of ‘the irreconcilability of the ideas of people who keep up a position and a peasant painter — who doesn’t think about it.’

There are several paintings about this place: Vincent van Gogh, The garden of the rectory in Nuenen, 1885, watercolor on paper, 38 x 49 cm. Collection The Noordbrabants Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Acquired with support from BankGiro Loterij, Mondriaan Fund, VSB Fund, Friends of The Noordbrabants Museum, Renschdael Art Foundation and Mr Coen Teulings. Photo Peter Cox, Eindhoven. (F1234). Vincent van Gogh, Rectory Garden in the Snow (F194), 1885, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. Vincent van Gogh, Rectory, (F1343), 1884, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Vincent van Gogh, The rectory at Nuenen at night, back, 1885, oil on canvas, 41 x 54.5 cm. private collection, thanks to Het Noordbrabants Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Photo Peter Cox, Eindhoven. (F183).

This place had been mentioned in Van Gogh’s letter during 1883-1885 and the painting is now exhibited in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, The heritage site is located in Berg 26, 5671 CC Nuenen, in Brabant, the Netherlands.