Van Gogh House, Mons Photos

Van Gogh House in Cuesmes, a village near Mons Belgium, is where Van Gogh lived from 1878-80 while serving as a layman preacher in the Borinage coal mining area. The furnishings reflect the simplicity of his life, and displays in the museum illustrate the misery of the lives of coal miners and their families among whom Van Gogh did much of his preaching. Van Gogh is thought to have done many drawings while in the Borinage but few survive. Van Gogh's time in the Borinage was a major turning point in his life when put aside, with regret, his aspirations of the being an evangelistic preacher, and wrote to his brother, Theo, about his intention of becoming an artist. He left the Borinage area in November 1880 to pursue his artistic training & live among other artists in Brussels.