Vincent's desire to rent a larger studio became a reality in early May 1884. Meanwhile, he has agreed with Theo to send him work in exchange for financial compensation. With this security of income, he finds a larger workshop with the sexton of the Catholic church, Johannes Schafrat (1847-1924), his wife Adriana van Eerd and their newborn son Cornelis.
They live in a house next to St. Clement's Church on what was then called Heieind F540, now Park. Vincent rented two rooms en suite on the first floor. In the large room at the front is a stove and there are two cabinets in which he keeps bird's nests, among other things. In the back room, he works. There are studies and magazines everywhere. Many a work comes to fruition here.
Still sleeping and eating with his parents. His pupil and painter friend Anton Kerssemakers (1846-1924) describes the studio in 1914, adding a floor plan and sketching the view of the house. A year after Vincent moved in, when father had died and disagreements arose with his eldest sister Anna about his staying in the rectory, he decided to live in his studio. He sleeps in the empty attic, directly under the roof tiles, where he smokes a pipe in bed. A photograph from 1926 shows the widow Schafrat in the sleeping corner with the chair on which he would have worked.
And it is during this period and in this studio that Vincent created his first great masterpiece. The many sketches and studies of people, hands and color, came together in his first major work: The Potato Eaters.
In time, it became difficult to find models. The pastor forbade his parishioners to pose. He would even pay them if they didn't. This is one of the reasons why Vincent left Nuenen at the end of November and went to Antwerp. Moreover, he hoped to learn something at the academy there and longed for an art world he had missed for so long.
In 1914, Anton Kerssemakers, with whom Vincent was a friend, wrote down his memories of the studio. The sexton's house was demolished in 1936.
The house was demolished in 1936, after which a new building was built on the site.
