Vincent's grandfather held a prominent position within the Protestant community in the predominantly Catholic province in the south of the Netherlands. In addition to being pastor of the Grote Kerk, from 1828 he also served as pastor of the Royal Military Academy. Moreover, from 1825 to 1866 he is secretary and bookkeeper of the Society for the Promotion of Prosperity, which seeks to improve the position of Protestants in North Brabant.
Reverend Vincent van Gogh and his wife Elisabeth Huberta Vrijdag (1790-1857) had twelve children, who grew up in Breda. The family first lived in the Wijngaarden House in Catharinastraat 9 and then from 1833 to 1875 in the house Den Grooten Toelast in Visserstraat 3, which was demolished in 1887.
Children enjoy a good education in Breda. Some of them attend the chapter school attached to the Great Church, the so-called Latin school in the Nieuwstraat. This education is reserved for the elite. The sons then make careers as soldiers, art dealers and preachers. The daughters became teachers and also worked in the household of various family members.
Vincent's father Theodorus van Gogh (1822-1885), like his father, chooses to become a pastor. Less talented than grandfather, he is assigned positions in small Brabant villages, successively Zundert (1849), Helvoirt (1871), Etten (1875) and Nuenen (1882), where he dies in 1885. The trace of the painter Vincent van Gogh through Brabant coincides with these places of employment of his father.
Breda has always remained a cradle for the Van Gogh family in Brabant. The grandparents' house in Visserstraat was a place of gathering for all family members. Vincent also visited there regularly in his youth. When he traveled from his native village of Zundert, it was via Breda train station. So he knows the city well. When he arrived in Arles, southern France, in 1888, he wrote to his brother Theo that the town reminded him of Breda.
Little is known about the relationship between Vincent and his grandfather. Vincent drew him once, after a photograph. A brief excerpt from a letter to Theo reveals that Vincent found him a cold and unpleasant man.
