<P> Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague, and his father was the youngest son of a minister . The two met when Anna's younger sister, Cornelia, married Theodorus's older brother Vincent (Cent). Van Gogh's parents married in May 1851 and moved to Zundert . His brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857 . There was another brother, Cor, and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina (known as "Wil"). In later life Van Gogh remained in touch only with Willemina and Theo. Van Gogh's mother was a rigid and religious woman who emphasised the importance of family to the point of claustrophobia for those around her . Theodorus's salary was modest, but the Church supplied the family with a house, a maid, two cooks, a gardener, a carriage and horse, and Anna instilled in the children a duty to uphold the family's high social position . </P> <P> Van Gogh was a serious and thoughtful child . He was taught at home by his mother and a governess, and in 1860 was sent to the village school . In 1864 he was placed in a boarding school at Zevenbergen, where he felt abandoned, and campaigned to come home . Instead, in 1866 his parents sent him to the middle school in Tilburg, where he was deeply unhappy . His interest in art began at a young age . He was encouraged to draw as a child by his mother, and his early drawings are expressive, but do not approach the intensity of his later work . Constant Cornelis Huijsmans, who had been a successful artist in Paris, taught the students at Tilburg . His philosophy was to reject technique in favour of capturing the impressions of things, particularly nature or common objects . Van Gogh's profound unhappiness seems to have overshadowed the lessons, which had little effect; in March 1868 he abruptly returned home . He later wrote that his youth was "austere and cold, and sterile". </P> <P> In July 1869 Van Gogh's uncle Cent obtained a position for him at the art dealers Goupil & Cie in The Hague . After completing his training in 1873, he was transferred to Goupil's London branch at Southampton Street, and took lodgings at 87 Hackford Road, Stockwell . This was a happy time for Van Gogh; he was successful at work, and at 20 was earning more than his father . Theo's wife later remarked that this was the best year of Vincent's life . He became infatuated with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, but was rejected after confessing his feelings; she was secretly engaged to a former lodger . He grew more isolated, and religiously fervent . His father and uncle arranged a transfer to Paris in 1875, where he became resentful of issues such as the degree to which the firm commodified art, and was dismissed a year later . </P> <P> In April 1876 he returned to England to take unpaid work as a supply teacher in a small boarding school in Ramsgate . When the proprietor moved to Isleworth in Middlesex, Van Gogh went with him . The arrangement did not work out and he left to become a Methodist minister's assistant . His parents had meanwhile moved to Etten; in 1876 he returned home at Christmas for six months and took work at a bookshop in Dordrecht . He was unhappy in the position and spent his time doodling or translating passages from the Bible into English, French and German . He immersed himself in religion, and became increasingly pious and monastic . According to his flatmate of the time, Paulus van Görlitz, Van Gogh ate frugally, avoiding meat . </P>

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