Peasant Woman, Half-Figure, Sitting
oil on canvas laid down on panel
153Ü4 x 111Ü4 in. (40 x 28.6 cm.)
Painted in Nuenen, December 1884-January 1885

Provenance

M. Bernard, Paris.
Galerie Druet, Paris (1906).
H. Fenz, Bern (1912).
Dr. P. Linder, Basel (by 1928).
Max Wirth, Basel.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 28 November 1989, lot 31

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.).