Early years

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 into a Dutch Reformed family
in Groot-Zundert, in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the
southern Netherlands.[16] He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh,
a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Van Gogh was
given the name of his grandfather, and of a brother stillborn exactly a year before
his birth.[note 2] Vincent was a common name in the Van Gogh family: his grandfather,
Vincent (1789–1874), who received a degree in theology at the University of Leiden in 1811,
had six sons, three of whom became art dealers. This Vincent may have been named after
his own great-uncle, a sculptor (1729–1802).

Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague, and his father was the
youngest son of a minister.[20] The two met when Anna's younger sister, Cornelia, married
Theodorus's older brother Vincent (Cent). Van Gogh's parents married in May 1851 and moved
to Zundert.[21] His brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857. There was another brother, Cor,
and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina (known as "Wil"). In later life Van Gogh
remained in touch only with Willemina and Theo.[22] Van Gogh's mother was a rigid and religious
woman who emphasised the importance of family to the point of claustrophobia for those around her.
Theodorus's salary was modest, but the Church supplied the family with a house, a maid, two cooks,
a gardener, a carriage and horse, and Anna instilled in the children a duty to uphold the
family's high social position.