Churchyard in the Rain 1883

Vincent van Gogh made this drawing, Churchyard in the Rain, using reed pen and ink. It depicts a burial scene, with the silhouette of a town visible on the horizon. It was made in the Netherlands, before Van Gogh moved to France. The Netherlands in the 1880s was a country with stark social divides between rural and urban areas. We can see that division represented in the image through the contrast between the gravediggers in the foreground, and the buildings on the horizon. The imagery of the scene is bleak, with the rain and the graveyard creating an atmosphere of melancholy. Van Gogh’s father was a pastor, and Vincent was deeply concerned with social issues; here he captures something of the hardship of rural life. If you want to understand Van Gogh’s work better, look into the different religious and political movements that shaped his artistic vision. We can use historical context to get a better idea of what his art might have meant to people at the time.