Editing Vincent van Gogh (section)

===Etten, Drenthe and The Hague===
{{See also|Early works of Vincent van Gogh}}
[[File:Kee Vos met zoon Jan-cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Kee Vos-Stricker with her son Jan {{circa|lk=no|1879–80}}|alt=A young woman facing left sits with a child to her right]]

Van Gogh returned to Etten in April 1881 for an extended stay with his parents.{{sfnp|Pomerans|1997|loc= 83}} He continued to draw, often using his neighbours as subjects. In August 1881, his recently widowed cousin, Cornelia "Kee" Vos-Stricker, daughter of his mother's older sister Willemina and [[Johannes Stricker]], arrived for a visit. He was thrilled and took long walks with her. Kee was seven years older than he was and had an eight-year-old son. Van Gogh surprised everyone by declaring his love to her and proposing marriage.{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 145}} She refused with the words "No, nay, never" ("''nooit, neen, nimmer''").{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let179/letter.html Letter 179]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Etten, Thursday, 3 November 1881.}} After Kee returned to Amsterdam, Van Gogh went to The Hague to try to sell paintings and to meet with his second cousin, [[Anton Mauve]]. Mauve was the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 239–240}} Mauve invited him to return in a few months and suggested he spend the intervening time working in [[charcoal (art)|charcoal]] and [[pastel]]s; Van Gogh returned to Etten and followed this advice.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 239–240}}

Late in November 1881, Van Gogh wrote a letter to Johannes Stricker, one which he described to Theo as an attack.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let189/letter.html Letter 189]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Etten, Wednesday, 23 November 1881.}} Within days he left for Amsterdam.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let193/letter.html Letter 193]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, Etten, on or about Friday, 23 December 1881, describing the visit in more detail.}} Kee would not meet him, and her parents wrote that his "persistence is ''disgusting''".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let228/letter.html Letter 228]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, on or about Tuesday, 16 May 1882.}} In despair, he held his left hand in the flame of a lamp, with the words: "Let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame."{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let228/letter.html Letter 228]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, on or about Tuesday, 16 May 1882.}}{{sfnp|Sweetman|1990|loc= 147}} He did not recall the event well, but later assumed that his uncle had blown out the flame. Kee's father made it clear that her refusal should be heeded and that the two would not marry, largely because of Van Gogh's inability to support himself.{{sfnp|Gayford|2006|loc=125}}

Mauve took Van Gogh on as a student and introduced him to watercolour, which he worked on for the next month before returning home for Christmas.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 250–252}} He quarrelled with his father, refusing to attend church, and left for The Hague.{{efn|group=note|"At Christmas I had a rather violent argument with Pa, and feelings ran so high that Pa said it would be better if I left home. Well, it was said so decidedly that I actually left the same day."}}{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let194/letter.html Letter 194]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh, The Hague, Thursday 29 December 1881}} In January 1882, Mauve introduced him to [[oil painting|painting in oil]] and lent him money to set up a studio.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let196/letter.html Letter 196]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Tuesday, 3 January 1882.}}{{sfnp|Walther|Metzger|1994|loc= 64}} Within a month Van Gogh and Mauve fell out, possibly over the viability of drawing from [[plaster cast]]s.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let219/letter.html Letter 219]}} Van Gogh could only afford to hire people from the street as models, a practice of which Mauve seems to have disapproved.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 258}} In June, Van Gogh suffered a bout of [[gonorrhea|gonorrhoea]] and spent three weeks in the hospital.{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let237/letter.html Letter 237]|ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Thursday, 8 June 1882.}} Soon after, he first painted in oils,{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 110}} bought with money borrowed from Theo. He liked the medium, and he spread the paint liberally, scraping from the canvas and working back with the brush. He wrote that he was surprised at how good the results were.{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 306}}

[[File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 016.jpg|thumb|''Rooftops, View from the Atelier The Hague'', 1882, private collection|alt=A view from a window of pale red rooftops. A bird flies in the blue sky; in the near distance there are fields and to the right, the town and other buildings can be seen. On the distant horizon are chimneys.]]

By March 1882, Mauve appeared to have gone cold towards Van Gogh, and stopped replying to his letters.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 96–103}} He had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, [[Sien (Van Gogh series)|Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik]] (1850–1904), and her young daughter.{{refn|{{harvp|Callow|1990|loc=116}}; cites the work of Hulsker; {{harvp|Callow|1990|loc= 123–124}}; {{harvp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let224/letter.html Letter 224] |ps= . Vincent to Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Sunday, 7 May 1882 }}}} Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant. She had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this.{{refn|{{harvp|Callow|1990|loc=116–117}}. citing the research of [[Jan Hulsker]]; the two dead children were born in 1874 and 1879.}} On 2 July, she gave birth to a baby boy, Willem.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 107}} When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children. Vincent at first defied him,{{refn|{{harvp|Callow |1990|loc= 132}}; {{harvp|Tralbaut|1981|loc=102–104, 112}}}} and considered moving the family out of the city, but in late 1883, he left Sien and the children.{{sfnp|Arnold|1992|loc=38}}

Poverty may have pushed Sien back into prostitution; the home became less happy and Van Gogh may have felt family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. Sien gave her daughter to her mother and baby Willem to her brother.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc=113}} Willem remembered visiting [[Rotterdam]] when he was about 12, when an uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry to legitimise the child.{{sfnp|Wilkie|2004|loc=185}} He believed Van Gogh was his father, but the timing of his birth makes this unlikely.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 101–107}} Sien drowned herself in the [[Scheldt|River Scheldt]] in 1904.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 111–122}}

In September 1883, Van Gogh moved to [[Drenthe]] in the northern Netherlands. In December, driven by loneliness, he went to live with his parents, then in [[Nuenen]], North Brabant.{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 111–122}}