Head of a Woman

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Nuenen, March-May 1885

oil on canvas, 42.2 cm x 34.5 cm

Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Did Van Gogh care if his models were good-looking or not? He chose this woman for her appearance, but not for the reason you might expect.

He was looking specifically for country people, both men and women, who had ‘coarse, flat faces with low foreheads and thick lips’. He wanted to paint 50 of them as what he called ‘study heads’. Their facial features were intended to show that they lived in close communion with nature and the land they farmed. Van Gogh’s interest in physiognomy may seem odd to us now, but in his own time it was not unusual.

F-number
F0269r
JH-number
JH0725
Object number
s0097V1962r
Dimensions
42.2 cm x 34.5 cm
Provenance
With his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, after May 1885; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
artist
Vincent van Gogh
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, De Aardappeleters: misser of meesterwerk?, 8 October 2021-13 February 2022

Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 15 July-23 September 2013

Sendai, Miyagi Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 26 May-8 July 2013

Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Paris. New perspectives, 30 March-19 May 2013

Seoul, Seoul Arts Center, Van Gogh in Paris. A dialogue with modernism, 4 November 2012-24 March 2013

Nagasaki, Huis ten Bosch (Japan), Van Gogh in Paris: New perspectives, 29 July-28 October 2012

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Van Gogh te gast in het Rijksmuseum. Meesterwerken van het Van Gogh Museum, 19 September 1998-2 May 1999

Vanbeselaere, Walther, Vermeylen, August, De hollandsche periode (1880-1885) in het werk van Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), 1937, p. 293 (269 verso), 344

Hulsker, Jan, The new complete Van Gogh : paintings, drawings, sketches, 1996, p. 159

Uitert, Evert van, Hoyle, Michael, Crimpen, Han van, The Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, 1987, p. 319

Paternotte-Limburg, Yvonne, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh Amsterdam : guide to the collection of paintings, 1979, [unpaged]

Leeuw, Ronald de, Van Gogh Museum : schilderijen en pastels, 1993, p. 64-67

Faille, Jacob Baart de la, Montagu-Pollock, P., Terrasse, Charles, Vincent van Gogh, 1939, p. 90

Faille, Jacob Baart de la, Vincent van Gogh : Gemälde, 1928, vol. 1, p. 79, nr. 269 verso, vol. 2, pl. LXXIII

Bowness, Alan, White, Gabriel, Vincent van Gogh : paintings and drawings from the collection of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation Amsterdam, p. 62

Tilborgh, Louis van, Vellekoop, Marije, Vincent van Gogh schilderijen : Nederlandse periode, 1881-1885 : Van Gogh Museum : 1, 1999, p. 84-105

Faille, Jacob Baart de la, Gelder, Jan Gerrit van, Hammacher, A.M., The works of Vincent van Gogh : his paintings and drawings, 1970, p. 106-107, 622

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