Peasant Woman Kneeling and Pulling Carrots
Van Gogh embarked on an intensive drawing campaign in the summer of 1885 following the disappointing reception of his painting "The Potato Eaters." The criticism he received, particularly for his execution of the figures in that work, seems to have spurred a return to figure drawing focused on peasant laborers working outdoors. The precise nature of this woman’s action is hard to discern, but she has been described as pulling carrots due to annotations on related drawings. Occupying the full, large sheet, she is endowed with a monumental quality. On his ambition for the drawings, the artist wrote, "I do not want them academically correct… it is my great desire to learn how to make… changes in reality that they might become… truer than the literal truth." (Letter 418).
Artwork Details
- Title: Peasant Woman Kneeling and Pulling Carrots
- Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
- Date: 1885
- Medium: Black chalk and brush and wash
- Dimensions: Sheet: 14 15/16 × 18 1/8 in. (38 × 46 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Gift of the Constance B. and Carroll L. Cartwright Collection in memory of George F. Bauerdorf, 2025
- Object Number: 2025.233.1
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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