Amsterdam In Tour

The Old Church Tower provides us with a closer look at how Vincent viewed peasant life and religion. Vincent lived near this old church tower in Nuenen, which was once connected to a church that collapsed around a hundred years earlier. Scattered around the tower are the graves of various farmers who lived in the area. Here, you can see the juxtaposition between the permanence of the farmer’s graves versus the impermanence of the church tower. This lends us insight into Vincent’s feelings towards the farmers. He noticed they were buried in the same soil that they once tilled themselves, representative of the cyclical nature of life. He saw truth in this humble life. However, the church tower was now in the process of being demolished since it is no longer in use, demonstrating the transience of religion. Vincent wrote about these very ideas in a letter to Theo to explain why he found this subject worth painting.