English memento for Anna
Around the time that the issue containing the article about the Austin Friars Church was published in early July 1877, Vincent was lodging with his uncle Johannes ‘Jan’ van Gogh (1817–1885) in Amsterdam, cramming for the theology entrance exam. In an upwelling of religious faith, he had decided to become a minister like his father. That same July, his sister Anna announced that she had received a marriage proposal from Joan van Houten. Vincent was delighted and might thus have made his drawing after the engraving especially for her, as a memento of the time they had spent together in London a few years earlier, possibly including shared visits to the church. He would then have presented her with it, either in person or mailed from Amsterdam.
While there are no surviving letters from Vincent to Anna, we know from one he sent to Theo on 9 July 1877 that he had written to her from Amsterdam with his congratulations: ‘On this occasion I congratulate you [Theo], too, as I have Anna and Pa and Ma’ [121]. Perhaps he enclosed the little drawing in his letter to her, or else handed it over in person at a later date.
Anna and Joan visited their relatives in Amsterdam at the beginning of August, including Vincent in his study. ‘It seems to me that that face and those eyes of Van Houten speak of heart and character’, he wrote to Theo shortly afterwards, concluding with the edifying words: ‘may she have made a good choice and may time turn that into the love that never faileth, but brings our dear sister through life, covering and forbearing everything and making whole hope and faith’ [126]. The relationship between Vincent and his oldest sister would later cool considerably.
It may be concluded, therefore, that Van Gogh made the drawing after the first week of July 1877 rather than during one of the years he spent in England, as previously assumed. The discovery also confirms Bailey and Van Heugten’s suggestion that the drawing was done after a print.
