In April 1881 Van Gogh moved Etten, the country with his parents, where he continued drawing, as many subjects with residents. During the summer months he spent much time walking and talking with his cousin recently widowed, Kee Vos-Stricker. She was the daughter of his mother's older sister and Johannes Stricker, who had shown sympathy for the artist. Kee spent seven years older than Van Gogh had a son of eight years. He beat her, but she refused, saying: No, never, never (niet, Nooit, Never). Later in November, wrote a letter to Uncle Stricker strong, then to Amsterdam, where he crashed repeatedly with Stricker. Kee refused to see him and wrote his parents: Your persistence is disgusting. In his desperation, he had his left hand into the flame of a lamp, with the words, see Let me, as long as I can hold my hand in the fire. I do not remember exactly what 's then turned, but then it is assumed that his uncle blew out the flame. Kee's father said that was not the marriage, the inability of Van Gogh, given to economically sustainable. Van Gogh perceived hypocrisy of his uncle and former guardian, affected him deeply. That Christmas he quarreled violently with his father, how to refuse a gift of money, and went to The Hague.

Shelter, view of the Hague Workshop (1882), watercolor, private collection.In January 1882, was in The Hague, where he called his cousin-brother, the painter Anton Mauve (founded 1838C1888). Malva encouraged to paint, but the two soon, probably because the issue of making plaster casts. Malva suddenly seems cold to Van Gogh and the return of a number of letters. Van Gogh had learned from his new adopted purple interior with a prostitute, alcoholic, Clasina Mary Sien Hoornik (1850Cunknown) and his young daughter. Sien had met in late January, when she was a girl of five and pregnant women. O He was not aware of two children who had died, while Van Gogh was. On 2 July, Sien birth to a son, William. At Van Gogh's father the details of their relationship being discovered, a considerable pressure to have to visit his son and their children. Vincent Defiant was the first face of the opposition. Uncle Cornelis van Gogh, an art dealer, service on 20 Ink drawings of the city, the artist in late May, June completed, spent three weeks in hospital suffering from gonorrhea. This summer, he began painting in oil. In fall 1883, after a year together, laissez-being and two children. Van Gogh had thought of moving the family to the city, but after the break. It is possible that the lack of money had been pushed back, has become home prostitutionthe Sien, the less fortunate and feel good, the Van Gogh family life compatible with his artistic development is not. When he left, Sien gave her daughter to her mother and the baby to his brother William. Later he moved to Delft and Antwerp. Willem remembered taken to visit his mother in Rotterdam at the age of 12 years, where his uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry in order to legitimize the child. Willem remembered his mother said, But I know who the father. He was an artist who has lived almost 20 years in The Hague. His name was Van Gogh. She then turned to Willem and said You are demanded of him. Willem Van Gogh, the son of look, but the time of birth, therefore, unlikely. In 1904 Sien drowned in his own hand on the Scheldt. Van Gogh went to the Dutch province of Drenthe in northern Holland. In December, driven by loneliness, he went along with their parents, who at that time in Nuenen, Noord-Brabant were to live.