A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage

Notes from the museum

Driven by the loneliness and poverty he had experienced living in the Hague, Vincent van Gogh returned to his parents’ home in Nuenen, the Netherlands, in late 1883 and devoted himself entirely to painting. In Nuenen, the artist also returned to the more monochromatic palette of browns, greens, and grays that he had used in his early years in the Netherlands. He painted a series of cottages— including this painting—based on his walks through the village. He described this series to his brother: “I feel for the brood and the nests—particularly those human nests, those cottages on the heath and their inhabitants.” Van Gogh carefully infused the woman, the cottage, and the setting with the same earthy tones and the loose, directional texture of the brushstrokes. In doing so, he emphasized the way she belonged to this place, and it to her.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His suicide at age 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.

Painter profile →