A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage
c. 1885
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
31.3 × 42 cm (12 5/16 × 16 1/2 in.); Framed: 52.1 × 62.6 × 10.8 cm (20 1/2 × 24 5/8 × 4 1/4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
28862
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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: ...
About the Artist
Vincent van Gogh · 1853–1890
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890) stands as one of the most influential figures in Western art history, despite a career spanning merely a decade. Born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, to a Protestant pastor's family, van Gogh's path to artistic greatness was anything but conventional. His early adulthood saw him working as an art dealer for Goupil & Cie, a language teacher, and a fervent missiona...