although the city council wanted to provide this new type of education to the city's inhabitants, tilburg did not receive state financial support for a school building. as the city couldn't afford a new building, it was suggested that king william ii's palace be used for the new school. the palace was still owned by the dutch royal family. on 30 november 1863 the city council sent a letter to the secretary of the royal family, requesting the palace's use as a school building. authorisation came in 1864 and in 1865 alterations to the building began. on 9 april 1866 the palace was opened as a school, named: koning willem ii ("king william ii"). one of its first students would also become its most famous alumni: dutch painter vincent van gogh, then 13 years old, attended classes in 1866 and left the school for unknown reasons in 1868. with an average rating of 7.36 (on a scale from 1 to 10) young vincent was a mediocre student. his art teacher was the painter constant cornelis huijsmans.