As of this week, art lovers can download a mobile phone application which covers Van Gogh’s younger years. The app serves as a travel guide to villages and towns in the Dutch province of North Brabant where Vincent van Gogh lived and worked as a young man.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) continues to draw large numbers of tourists to both the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the French region of La Provence, where he painted many of his famous works. However, most Van Gogh lovers ignore North Brabant. And yet, this is the region where he was born and raised and where he set out on his career as a draughtsman and painter.

Route
The southern Dutch province is working really hard to use Van Gogh to lure tourists to North Brabant. His native town of Zundert features a Vincent van Gogh House; Vincent’s Art Room is located in Tilburg, where he attended school at age 13; the Vincent van Gogh Information Centre can be found in Etten-Leur, where he stayed at his parents’ home for seven months in 1881 and decided to become an artist. The town of Nuenen has proclaimed itself Van Gogh Village, because he lived there for two years.

All of these towns have created ‘Van Gogh routes’. Via the app on their mobile phone, visitors can receive information on Van Gogh’s life there. They get to see drawings, paintings and sketches, and hear audio recordings of letters he wrote to his brother Theo.

(gsh/rk/kh)

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide

For more information: http://www.vangoghbrabant.com/biografie.