A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage

Description

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.

Provenance

The artist; his mother, Mrs. A. C. Van Gogh Carbentus, Neunen and Breda, around 1885 [ according to a letter from Martha Op de Coul, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, Netherlands, Aug. 23, 2000]; given to the carpenter, Schrauwen, Breda, 1886 [this and the following according to Stokvis 1926, 5-6]; transferred to Jan and Rien Couvreur, Breda, 1903; sold to C. Mouwen, Jr., Breda; sold, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, May 3, 1904, lot 13, for 205 fl. to Van Gelder [according to annotated copy of sale catalogue; in curatorial object file]. Mejevrouw K. Cosman, The Hague, by June 1935 [this and the following according to La Faille, 1970, 617, and the E. J. Van Wisselingh and Co. stock book , Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie , The Hague]; sold to E. J. Van Wisselingh and Co., Amsterdam, by June 1935; sold to Harry S. Southam, Ottawa, June 24, 1935 until about 1944 [according to letter from Michael Pantazzi, National Gallery of Canada, July 26, 2000]. E. and A. Silberman, New York; sold to Dr. John J. Ireland (died 1968), Chicago, about 1964; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1968.