As a young man, Van Gogh pursued a career as a Protestant preacher and evangelist among coal miners in the Borinage between 1878 and 1880.

It was driven primarily by the surge in coal and steel industries located in the Sillon industriel along the Sambre and Meuse valley.

He spent his first weeks in Pâturages [fr] before moving a short distance to nearby Wasmes where he lived as a lodger with a farmer called Jean-Baptiste Denis and his wife Estere.

[1] In February 1879, Van Gogh was employed by the Union of Protestant Evangelical Churches of Belgium (Union des Eglises Protestantes Evangéliques de Belgique) on a probationary six-month contract as an evangelist with the aim of preaching to local miners in order to convert them from Catholicism.

[1] As a result of his personal eccentricity, Van Gogh failed to establish a rapport with the miners although feeling considerable sympathy for their situation.

[2] Although no longer employed, Van Gogh was determined to remain in the Borinage as an unpaid independent evangelist.

After being abandoned for almost a century and largely derelict, the Decrucq house in Cuesmes was purchased by the municipality of Mons in January 1972.