Van Gogh was transferred to the London branch of art dealers Goupil & Cie in May 1873, having worked at their Hague office for several years. He was just 20 years old. At that age, he was earning more than his father, working as a dealer in art photography and prints out of their Covent Garden gallery.
His first London lodgings were too expensive, so in August 1873 he moved into a room on the top floor of 87 Hackford Road, a three-storey Georgian terrace in Brixton, paying 12 shillings a month — just over a third of his salary.