Cottages

Vincent van Gogh is world-famous. Did you know that in 1883, Van Gogh spent three months living in Drenthe? This was a short yet significant period in his life. Here, he developed his passion for painting.

Artist friends recommended that Van Gogh visit Drenthe to be inspired by the primeval landscape and the Drenthe peat labourers. There are vista panels just like this one in various locations throughout the Drenthe landscape. Looking through the panels, you look into the landscape as if through Vincent van Gogh's eyes standing in the places that inspired him.

Cottages

During his stay in Hoogeveen, Vincent van Gogh walked a lot - in search of beautiful locations he could paint. When painting, he witnesses the following, which he described in a letter to his brother Theo: ‘To give you a taster of the realness of this area, while I was painting the cottage, two sheep and a goat came and started to graze on the roof of this home. The goat climbed onto the ridge and looked into the chimney. The woman, who heard something on the roof, rushed outside and swung her broom at the aforementioned goat, which jumped down like a chamois.’

The cottages Vincent van Gogh writes about were sleeping places for the seasonal labourers who worked at the peat extraction sites. These cottages had no furniture: they were a place to sleep, a temporary shelter, nothing more. As such, a string of cottages had formed to the east of the village of Hoogeveen.

Incidentally, it is not known whether he painted the work ‘Cottages’ as shown here in this location or somewhere else in Drenthe.

THESE VISTA PANELS ARE PART OF THE THREE SIGNPOSTED VAN GOGH CYCLING ROUTES.

THE ROUTES CAN BE DOWNLOADED AT