1885
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage is a 1885 oil by Vincent van Gogh, a Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a woman in a dark skirt and white cap digging outside a small brick house under a cloudy sky. Van Gogh painted this while living with his parents in a Dutch village. He used thick, rough brushstrokes—almost like the dirt itself. The colors are quiet: browns, grays, and a little green. It feels like an ordinary moment, not a grand scene. Look up *impasto* to see how Van Gogh built up the paint like clay.
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…
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…
Omaha, Nebraska, Joslyn Art Museum, Jules Breton and the French Rural Tradition, Nov. 6, 1982–Jan. 2, 1983, cat. 99. Tokyo, Seibu Museum, The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 18–Dec. 1, 1985, cat. 11; Kyoto, Fukuoka Art Museum, Jan. 5–Feb. 2, 1986; Kyoto, Municipal Museum of Art, Mar. 4–Apr. 13, 1986, cat. 11. Vienna, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Van Gogh und die Haager Schule (The Early Van Gogh and the Hague School), Feb. 28–May 27, 1996, cat. 78. Art Institute of Chicago, Van Gogh's Bedrooms, Feb. 14 - May 10, 2016, no cat. no., plate 2.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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.
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