A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage

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 their inhabitants.” Van Gogh carefully infused the woman, the cottage, and the setting with the same earthy tones and the loose, directional texture of the brushstrokes. In doing so, he emphasized the way she belonged to this place, and it to her.