The intention and determination that inform Van Gogh's art can be obscured by the sensational legends that have arisen about his life. The artist's correspondence, particularly from his brief mature period of 1888 to 1890, contradicts popular lore and attests to the deliberateness, sensitivity, and integrity of his work.

On about 25 July 1888, Van Gogh wrote his younger brother Theo, a dealer in a Parisian art gallery, to announce, "And now, if you know what a 'mousmé' is (you will know when you have read Loti's Madame Chrysanth?me), I have just painted one. It took me a whole week . . . but I had to reserve my mental energy to do the mousmé well. A mousme is a Japanese girl -- Provençal in this case -- twelve to fourteen years old." The carefully modeled face and the vigorous linear patterns of bold complementary colors that describe the girl are stylistic devices that express Van Gogh's sympathetic response to his young sitter. In several descriptions of the painting Van Gogh mentioned the oleander buds in her hand. The significance of the flowers is unclear but may be related to the artist's pantheistic beliefs in natural cycles of birth and renewal.

La Mousmé was one of a group of portrait studies which, Vincent wrote, were, "the only thing in painting that excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else."