Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh, Zundert, 1853 - 1890

Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother in November 1883: “Would like to tell you about a trip to Zweeloo, the village where Liebermann stayed for a long while and where he made studies for his painting at the last Salon, the one with the washerwomen”. Vincent stayed in Nieuw Amsterdam hoping that he might still meet Max Liebermann in Zweeloo. But there were no painters there during the winter and he returned home disappointed. He did, however, draw the garden where Liebermann had painted his Bleek, the church at Zweeloo and wrote a wonderful letter about his trip. This story shows how closely the painters followed each other’s work: a litho of Liebermann’s Bleek had been published in an art magazine which Van Gogh had carefully studied.