He was obsessed with art. He probably spent whole days on it. First making sketches, then etching; of course, he had to make the paint himself too, and by the time you’ve done that, a couple of hours have already gone by before you can even start. On top of that, he was a collector of foreign items, even though he never left the country. So everything you see – including foreign animals – he simply obtained from pictures, souvenirs or taxidermied animals belonging to others, which he also claimed as his own. I reckon the garden was full in no time, and in winter there wouldn’t have been much daylight to get much done anyway. He replaced his wife with the housekeeper – with whom he was also having an affair – and then had her locked up in an institution so he could start a relationship with the next housekeeper, with whom he had a child. I think you can safely assume that the world revolved around him, and his front garden soon fell into disrepair; he was heavily in debt and had to leave the house. It seems to me that this must have caused him a great deal of stress, as this was the house where he’d lived with his wife for a few years. I believe he also sold – or was forced to sell – the painting of her, and that the one on display now is a forgery by someone else.