Van Gogh's - First Drawing (Canal 1873) after falling from his Vocation as a Preacher

Van Gogh's first drawing called "Canal" drawn in 1873. After the painful failure of his first chosen vocation as a new age working class preacher he turned to drawing and art as a second choice. He had previously worked as an art dealer for 6 years before trying his hand at religion. Even though "Canal" is a modest work by an artist with no training (Van Gogh was largely self-taught I believe until his death in 1890) you can still see glimpses of his trademark style the very dna of all his later works flow from the river of his first sketch, the original.