Profile of Works
Cottage with Peasant Woman Digging
- 1885
- Oil on canvas
- 30.5 x 40.0 cm
The images of the TFAM’s collection on our website are available for free.
High-resolution image is available from PHOTO AGENCY.
Born in the Netherlands, Van Gogh studied the basic of drawing in Brussels. In 1881, at the age of 28, he moved to Etten in the south of the Netherlands, where his father was posted as a pastor. At the end of that year, due to the conflict with his father who was dead against his wish to become a painter, Van Gogh moved to The Hague, where he met the painters of the Hague school. Influenced by the works by the painters of the Hague school and the 17th-century Dutch masters, the works created by Van Gogh during his Dutch period were painted entirely in muted, dark tones.
In 1883, at the age of 30, Van Gogh left The Hague for Nuenen in the southern Netherlands, where his father had been assigned to. Around this time, he seriously began to devote himself to oil painting, and energetically portrayed peasants and artisans, and also landscapes around Nuenen.
His Nuenen period was an essential time for Van Gogh to establish himself as a peasant painter. During this time, Van Gogh painted The Potato Eaters (1885), which can be regarded as a culmination of his Dutch period. This work Cottage with Peasant Woman Digging was painted in June 1885, one month after the production of The Potato Eaters.
In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote: “Right now I need all my time, because I am working a full two hours from here (Nuenen). What I want is to have some more beautiful hovels far away on the heath. I have four now, as large as the two I last sent you, and a few smaller ones.” This work is one of the “few smaller ones” referred to in the letter.
For Gogh, who admired Millet, a scene of peasant life was an essential motif to represent the harshness of their lifestyle and their deep connection with nature. Van Gogh affectionately likened peasants’ houses to the nests of the winter wren, a tiny wild bird smaller than a sparrow, dubbing their houses “people’s nests.” With his strong touches and muted tones, he captured the hardiness of peasants whose lives are rooted in the land and the generosity of nature.
Van Gogh painted a number of the works with a similar motif as this one during the same period, which indicates how important this motif was to him.
The images of the TFAM’s collection on our website are available for free.
High-resolution image is available from PHOTO AGENCY.
ARTIST
Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890)
Exhibit history
- Sep 17, 2022 (Sat)～Nov 20, 2022 (Sun)
400 Years of Western Paintings - Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum - Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design (Toyama, Japan) - Jul 16, 2022 (Sat)～Sep 4, 2022 (Sun)
Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art (Kumamoto, Japan) - Mar 19, 2022 (Sat)～May 8, 2022 (Sun)
Masterpieces of European Paintings From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Saga Prefectural Art Museum (Saga, Japan) - Oct 23, 2021 (Sat)～Dec 26, 2021 (Sun)
The 400 Years of Western Painting: Masterpieces From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts (Tochigi, Japan) - Jul 9, 2021 (Fri)～Aug 29, 2021 (Sun)
400 Years of European Paintings: Masterpieces From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art (Okayama, Japan) - Dec 15, 2020 (Tue)～Jan 31, 2021 (Sun)
How to Read Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum (Okinawa, Japan) - Sep 12, 2020 (Sat)～Nov 3, 2020 (Tue)
400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum (Miyazaki, Japan) - Jul 22, 2020 (Wed)～Sep 6, 2020 (Sun)
400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Oita Prefectural Art Museum (Oita, Japan) - Feb 20, 2020 (Thu)～Apr 12, 2020 (Sun)
How to Read Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki (Ibaraki, Japan) - Sep 3, 2019 (Tue)～Oct 22, 2019 (Tue)
Masterpieces of European Paintings From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum (Yamaguchi, Japan) - Jan 12, 2019 (Sat)～May 4, 2019 (Sat)
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Shanghai PowerLong Museum (Shanghai, China) - Oct 23, 2018 (Tue)～Dec 23, 2018 (Sun)
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tsinghua University Art Museum (Beijing, China) - Apr 29, 2017 (Sat)～Jun 25, 2017 (Sun)
The Collection of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum: East and West Encounters Niihama City Museum of Art (Ehime, Japan) - Oct 8, 2015 (Thu)～Feb 21, 2016 (Sun)
Japan’s Love for Impressionism - from Monet to Renoir The Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bonn, Germany) - Jan 25, 2015 (Sun)～May 17, 2015 (Sun)
Van Gogh in the Borinage: birth of an artist Beaux-Arts Mons (Mons, Belgium) - Sep 29, 2012 (Sat)～Nov 4, 2012 (Sun)
The First Year of Fukushima Culture Restoration: Love, Life, Bond... Great Masters of Western Paintings -The 100 Masterpieces from the Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum- Fukushima Prefectural Culture Center (Fukushima, Japan) - Aug 4, 2009 (Tue)～Aug 30, 2009 (Sun)
The 15th Charity Art Collection - Charity Event Saving the Children of the World through Art Hotel Okura Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan) - Jul 14, 2007 (Sat)～Nov 25, 2007 (Sun)
Impressionists and Its Sources: Monet, Renoir, and Barbizon Masters Musee d'art Mercian KARUIZAWA (Nagano, Japan)
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