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Lot Essay
In December 1883 van Gogh returned to his parents' home in Nuenen and there early the following year he painted his important series of weavers. During the spring and summer of 1884 he spent much time out-of-doors painting landscapes, and in the fall he turned to still-life. Acutely aware of his lack of training in painting the figure, he now made it a priority to draw and paint from life. He considered plans to attend either the academy at 's-Hertogenbosch or Antwerp, or Anton Mauve's studio in The Hague. He purchased copies of John Marshall's Anatomy for Artists, and textbooks used by the academies in Antwerp and Paris, which he could afford only because he did not have to pay his parents for room and board.
Near the end of October 1884 the painter Anthon van Rappard visited van Gogh in Nuenen and persuaded his friend to spend the rest of the year preparing his skills with the aim of entering the academy at Antwerp. "Rappard" van Gogh wrote to his bother Theo, "will stay another week, as he is up to his ears in work. He is painting spinners and several studies of heads; he has already made about ten studies, all of which I like" (Letter 383). In fact, van Rappard's quickly rendered portraits so impressed van Gogh that he decided to undertake his own series of portrait heads, which he commenced immediately with the head of a shepherd (now lost). He soon after wrote to Theo: "I must paint 50 heads just for experience, because right now I am hitting my stride. As soon as possible and one after the other" (Letter 384). He asked Theo for a hundred more francs to cover the expense of materials. "I must strike while the iron is hot; so--dear brother and friend, stir up the fire" (ibid.).
It was easy for van Gogh to find willing models among the local peasants now that the harvest was in and there was little work to be done outside with the onset of winter. Vincent had also hoped to establish some sort of business as a local portraitist, as there were few in Nuenen who had any skill at this, and his subjects liked the artist's sincere if awkward efforts at characterization. Indeed, the artist sought out facial types with distinctive physiognomies of the Brabant region, preferring "rough, flat faces with low foreheads and thick lips, not sharp, but full and Millet-like" (Letter 372). He saw his subjects not so much as individuals but as examples of a primitive and ageless rural type, with characteristics that reflected their close ties to the cycles of nature, and the harsh conditions under which they lived.
In this series of portraits the female heads stand out, mainly because of the attention that van Gogh gave to the sitters' distinctive regional headdress. During the day most women would wear a simple white cap that covered their hair and ears; when they went out they would wear on top of this a more genteel gauze covering known as a net cap, as seen in the present painting. Van Gogh found painting this headdress difficult, but saw in it the opportunity to set up a dramatic white contrast with the dark tonality of the sitter's costume and indoor setting, and it challenged him to use a more flexible and expressive manner in working with the brush.
In his letters van Gogh identified only one of his sitters, Gordina de Groot, known as Sien (she is not to be confused with Sien Hoornik, whom Vincent had lived with while he stayed in The Hague two years earlier). She was almost thirty when van Gogh met her, and her features must have constituted something of the ideal type that the artist was seeking, for many the female sitters he painted during this time share some of her facial characteristics. Van Gogh placed her on the left side of the final version of The Potato-Eaters, completed in May 1885 (Hulsker, no. 764; coll. Rijksmuseum van Gogh, Amsterdam), where she is the only model that can be identified with certainty. She is possibly the subject of the present painting, which was done during early in the series of portraits painted near the end of 1884 and leading up to The Potato-Eaters of the following spring. The Potato-Eaters was the culmination of the artist's efforts in Nuenen, the painting he believed to be best thing he had done up to this time, and the one he hoped would serve as proof of his abilities to Theo, van Rappard, and the outside world.
Near the end of October 1884 the painter Anthon van Rappard visited van Gogh in Nuenen and persuaded his friend to spend the rest of the year preparing his skills with the aim of entering the academy at Antwerp. "Rappard" van Gogh wrote to his bother Theo, "will stay another week, as he is up to his ears in work. He is painting spinners and several studies of heads; he has already made about ten studies, all of which I like" (Letter 383). In fact, van Rappard's quickly rendered portraits so impressed van Gogh that he decided to undertake his own series of portrait heads, which he commenced immediately with the head of a shepherd (now lost). He soon after wrote to Theo: "I must paint 50 heads just for experience, because right now I am hitting my stride. As soon as possible and one after the other" (Letter 384). He asked Theo for a hundred more francs to cover the expense of materials. "I must strike while the iron is hot; so--dear brother and friend, stir up the fire" (ibid.).
It was easy for van Gogh to find willing models among the local peasants now that the harvest was in and there was little work to be done outside with the onset of winter. Vincent had also hoped to establish some sort of business as a local portraitist, as there were few in Nuenen who had any skill at this, and his subjects liked the artist's sincere if awkward efforts at characterization. Indeed, the artist sought out facial types with distinctive physiognomies of the Brabant region, preferring "rough, flat faces with low foreheads and thick lips, not sharp, but full and Millet-like" (Letter 372). He saw his subjects not so much as individuals but as examples of a primitive and ageless rural type, with characteristics that reflected their close ties to the cycles of nature, and the harsh conditions under which they lived.
In this series of portraits the female heads stand out, mainly because of the attention that van Gogh gave to the sitters' distinctive regional headdress. During the day most women would wear a simple white cap that covered their hair and ears; when they went out they would wear on top of this a more genteel gauze covering known as a net cap, as seen in the present painting. Van Gogh found painting this headdress difficult, but saw in it the opportunity to set up a dramatic white contrast with the dark tonality of the sitter's costume and indoor setting, and it challenged him to use a more flexible and expressive manner in working with the brush.
In his letters van Gogh identified only one of his sitters, Gordina de Groot, known as Sien (she is not to be confused with Sien Hoornik, whom Vincent had lived with while he stayed in The Hague two years earlier). She was almost thirty when van Gogh met her, and her features must have constituted something of the ideal type that the artist was seeking, for many the female sitters he painted during this time share some of her facial characteristics. Van Gogh placed her on the left side of the final version of The Potato-Eaters, completed in May 1885 (Hulsker, no. 764; coll. Rijksmuseum van Gogh, Amsterdam), where she is the only model that can be identified with certainty. She is possibly the subject of the present painting, which was done during early in the series of portraits painted near the end of 1884 and leading up to The Potato-Eaters of the following spring. The Potato-Eaters was the culmination of the artist's efforts in Nuenen, the painting he believed to be best thing he had done up to this time, and the one he hoped would serve as proof of his abilities to Theo, van Rappard, and the outside world.