The De Jonge van Zwijnsbergen family owned a third principal residence in Helvoirt. In 1869 Mariënhof estate was bought for 18,550 guilders by Joan, whose father had also owned it earlier. Mariënhof is located on the Keiweg, now called Oude Rijksweg; an important route between 's-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg. The white-plastered villa was built around 1812 and surrounded by a large estate.
The Van Gogh family regularly visited the befriended owner, according to family letters. Vincent also knew the spacious villa on the thoroughfare. In 1876, he describes his recollection of an evening walk two years earlier:
I am already looking forward to Christmas, two years ago we took that walk in the snow at night, you remember, when we saw the moon rise over the Mariënhof. I remember the evening when I drove from Den Bosch to Helvoirt in an open trolley at Christmas time, it was formidably cold and slippery on the road, how beautiful Den Bosch looked, the marketplace and the streets covered with snow and the houses dark with snow on the roofs, Brabant is Brabant, and the fatherland is the fatherland, and countries of foreign countries are countries of foreign countries. And how friendly Helvoirt and the lights in the village and the tower between the snow-covered poplars looked that evening, seen from afar from the road to 's Bosch.─ But it is love that gives it all such great beauty and life.─ And do you remember that trip to St Michiels Gestel?
