When Vincent arrived in Nuenen, the vicarage garden quickly caught his attention. The Old Tower and the adjoining cemetery, visible from the vicarage garden, remained firmly in his thoughts. ‘The cemetery with the wooden crosses is really on my mind, so much so that I might even make some preliminary studies of it – I’d quite like to paint something like that in the snow – a peasant’s funeral or something like that.’ The cemetery with the crosses by the tower in the snow is indeed one of the first subjects he sketches in Nuenen. Vincent captures the scene more than thirty times.
The site took on greater significance when his father died on 26 March 1885 and was buried four days later in the cemetery, which was still in use at the time.
The grave is still there. The foundations of the old tower have been preserved and are now marked by gabions.
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