5. It is not clear whether Van Gogh was looking for addresses of art dealers from Nuenen (and possibly Eindhoven) or actually went to Antwerp himself. Had he gone in person, one would expect him to have shown some canvases to dealers and reported their reactions to Theo. Moreover, the wording in
letter 541 of about 14 November, in which Van Gogh writes that he has ‘come by’ the addresses of six art dealers, would seem to indicate that he did not have them before. And lastly, several months later, after a visit to the Rijksmuseum (
letter 534), he writes that he does not intend to be cut off from paintings by other artists for so long in future. Had he been to Antwerp he would undoubtedly have gone to the World Exhibition and/or the Museum voor Schone Kunsten.
On the other hand, we do know for certain that Van Gogh went to Antwerp with
Anton Kerssemakers. According to Kerssemakers’s memoirs, however, this was after their visit to Amsterdam on 6-8 October 1885. (Cf. Verzamelde brieven 1973, vol. 3, p. 95.) In a letter of 1912 Kerssemakers also recalled that Van Gogh had once been to Antwerp on his own and had brought back a nice surprise. The story is preceded by a brief introduction about a visit to a pharmacist: ‘They then asked the old pharmacist Vrijman for Copahu Balsam, and as a curiosity Van Gogh told me that, when they asked him whether they could dilute this Copahu with turpentine, the pharmacist, believing that they had contracted a venereal disease, snarled at them, “haven’t you done enough damage to your carcass already?” which the two visitors naturally found very funny.’ Kerssemakers himself wrote: ‘In my memoirs in De Amsterdammer I spoke of the singular revenge he had wreaked on that parson in Nuenen, but I didn’t want to specify it, deeming it not really suitable for the general public; however, I will tell it to you personally, counting on your discretion. He came to see me once after a trip to Antwerp, and said I’ve brought something back from my trip to do that tiresome fellow in Nuenen a favour. Obviously I was very curious as to what this could be, and then he showed me a few dozen sheaths (gants d’amour); I shall hand them out to the peasant lads in Nuenen, and see what that does. You can see that the missionary zeal was already long gone.’ Letter from Anton Kerssemakers to Albert Plasschaert, Eindhoven, 27 August 1912 (FR b3038).