Nuenen: Vincent painted a picture of this church on one occasion as a present for his mother and he also made two drawings of it. His father was minister here from August 1882 until his death on 26 March 1885. After being dismissed as an evangelist in the Belgian mining area of the Borinage, Vincent no longer felt committed to his father’s church. This led again and again to discussions and strong feelings. After Pa’s sudden death Vincent decided to mark this difference of opinion in a simple still life depicting his father’s bible and a passage he had read himself from La Joie de vivre (The Joy of Life) by Émile Zola.
