Sadly, van Gogh saw the Organized Church progressively falling apart as time went on, his depressing portrayal of the Old Church Tower becoming even more dilapidated in The Old Church Tower at Nuenen, painted in May 1884. The gray monolith of the building stands starkly against the cloudy sky, but its edges seem slightly uneven, its form perhaps starting to crumble and fall apart. Perhaps it is shaken because for the first time, the drawn figure in the work – a woman in front of the yard – is not facing the edifice, her back turned to its stone walls. Still dressed in black, her sad form looks down towards the lower left-hand corner of the canvas, the rusted churchyard gate falling off its hinges to her right. Clearly, the tower has fallen further into a state of abandonment and disrepair, with broken, darkened windows and a hole in the side of the steeple roof. Indeed, van Gogh implies 
that only birds visit the interior of this worship space now, as they circle around its roof. This progression – or rather, deterioration – of the artist’s view of the church exposes his growing struggle with the religion it represents. By turning the figure’s back to the church building, van Gogh effectually shows how he had turned his back on the Church, finally giving up on any attempts of hoping to find God there. There is still lament in this realization, however, and just as the woman gazes out towards the lower left part of the canvas, van Gogh likely still longed to find divine consolation somewhere else. His view of the Church may have been shattered, as illustrated by the broken windows and fallen gate, through which he will not pass again. This echoes his letter to Theo of late December 1883, when he wrote of his final disillusionment with organized religion:
"I thought of a passage, I don’t know from what book: 'Two eyes were awake, brightened by genuine tears.' I thought I am disillusioned. I thought, I have believed in many things which I now know are really sorry fallacies – I thought, Those eyes of mine, here on this gloomy evening, wide awake in this deserted region – if they have been full of tears at times, why shouldn’t these have been wrung from me by a sorrow that disenchants – yes – and disturbs illusions – but at the same time, makes one wide awake." (L344.2)
If the figure in The Old Church Tower at Nuenen can be taken to represent van Gogh, her turned back and downcast eyes can be taken to embody the artist’s sentiment in this letter perfectly. Giving up on the illusion of the now crumbling Church, turning away from the gloom and gray of its grounds, the artist truly begins to search elsewhere for God. Eyes awakened to a God who transcends the fallen Church, van Gogh gave up on the earthly organization – sorrowful though this realization might be – and seems to have left its broken edifice to the birds. Clearly, The Old Church Tower at Nuenen personifies this turning point in van Gogh’s religious struggle, truly giving up on the gloomy, dilapidated Church to search elsewhere for the consoling God he craved.