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Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fireplace

1885
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 825
This work was made in Nuenen in late spring 1885, just after Van Gogh completed The Potato Eaters (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), in the same dark hues that reminded the artist of "green soap" or "a really dusty potato, unpeeled of course." Van Gogh was "convinced that in the long run it produces better results to paint [peasants] in their coarseness than to introduce conventional sweetness… If a peasant painting smells of bacon, smoke, potato steam—fine—that’s not unhealthy—if a stable smells of manure—very well, that’s what a stable’s for."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fireplace
  • Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
  • Date: 1885
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 17 3/8 x 15 in. (44.1 x 38.1 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Hays, 1984
  • Object Number: 1984.393
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
Nursery on Schenkweg, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Black chalk, graphite, pen, brush, and ink, heightened with white body color on laid paper watermarked ED & CIE (in a cartouche)
Nursery on Schenkweg
Vincent van Gogh
March–May 1882
The Potato Peeler (reverse: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat), Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Oil on canvas
The Potato Peeler (reverse: Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat)
Vincent van Gogh
1885
Road in Etten, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Chalk, pencil, pastel, watercolor. Underdrawing in pen and brown ink.
Road in Etten
Vincent van Gogh
1881
Peasant Woman Kneeling and Pulling Carrots, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Black chalk and brush and wash
Peasant Woman Kneeling and Pulling Carrots
Vincent van Gogh
1885
Gardener by an Apple Tree, Vincent van Gogh Dutch, Transfer lithograph with pen and ink
Gardener by an Apple Tree
Vincent van Gogh
mid-July, 1883

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