Lot Essay
Van Gogh painted Cottage - Boerenhuis in the same year as his celebrated The Potato Eaters (F.82), now in the Van Gogh museum, Amsterdam. Both works bear testimony to the artist's fascination with simple dwellings and their inhabitants.
In several letters written from Nuenen during the summer of 1885, Van Gogh expressed his interest in the cottage as an effective motif, perhaps as they reminded him of his home region of Brabant. He felt a special affinity to the peasants whose homes and harsh way of life he returned to depict again and again. In a letter to his brother Theo written around the begining of June 1885, he exclaimed: "I was working on the cottage...and looking for subjects. I have found some that are so splendid that I cannot help painting some more variations of those 'human nests', which remind me so much of the wren's nest. Oh, beyond all doubt, whoever paints peasants nowadays and has his heart in his work will have part of the public on his side...". (letter no.411, old number)
The present work is a fine example of Van Gogh's mastery of dark tonal values. He often worked at twilight and at dawn as he was inspired by the varying light conditions as day turned to night and vice versa. In Cottage - Boerenhuis Van Gogh chose to depict the cottage and peasant woman in the evening when he could evoke a powerful and evocative atmosphere.
See colour illustration
In several letters written from Nuenen during the summer of 1885, Van Gogh expressed his interest in the cottage as an effective motif, perhaps as they reminded him of his home region of Brabant. He felt a special affinity to the peasants whose homes and harsh way of life he returned to depict again and again. In a letter to his brother Theo written around the begining of June 1885, he exclaimed: "I was working on the cottage...and looking for subjects. I have found some that are so splendid that I cannot help painting some more variations of those 'human nests', which remind me so much of the wren's nest. Oh, beyond all doubt, whoever paints peasants nowadays and has his heart in his work will have part of the public on his side...". (letter no.411, old number)
The present work is a fine example of Van Gogh's mastery of dark tonal values. He often worked at twilight and at dawn as he was inspired by the varying light conditions as day turned to night and vice versa. In Cottage - Boerenhuis Van Gogh chose to depict the cottage and peasant woman in the evening when he could evoke a powerful and evocative atmosphere.
See colour illustration