bby dwellings as his, and dress in such poor clothes that could not distinguish him from the masses. He was instantly dismissed. It was a painful blow, the effects of which he felt for a long time afterwards. The church closed its doors to the young man. Business had abandoned him already. What else could remain but the domain of art, in which the passionate seems to thrive always. His interest in painting revived. He had drawn some small sketches while still in Borinage and shown them to his brother Theo. Theodore, unlike his older brother, had made a success of himself and had been constantly improving his economical status. He decided to support the fledgling artist.The decision marked a turning point in Van Gogh’s life. It helped him to become financially secure and it lifted the economical burden off his shoulders. He could finally devote himself to painting without any concerns about money. He settled close to his parents, in Brabant. He started painting extensively and chose his subjects among the peasants that lived around Brabant. Then, as in later life, he always preferred the poor rather than the rich, the simple rather than the sophisticated. His first important painting Gjikondi 3was to be the Potato Eaters. “Every night he went back to the De Groots. He worked until they were too sleepy to sit up any longer. Each night he tried new combinations of colors, different values and proportions; and each day he saw that he had missed, that his work was incomplete” (Stone 286).For 12 days the painter struggled to depict the essence of these simple and poor folk whom he loved tenderly. For 12 entire days he revised, corrected, reasoned, and observed and yet, canvas after canvas were destroyed after he had seen them in the sober light of the day. He painted the De Groots during the final evening, before he would leave for Paris, and was just as unhappy with his first painting as with the last. He ...
