Head of a Peasant Woman with White Cap

In mid-December 1884, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo from the Brabant village of Nuenen that he had to make 50 heads while he was still there, because in winter he could get models of every type relatively easily. With the fields quiet, farm families could spare the time, and he paid them to sit, asking Theo for 20 or 30 francs to keep going. This small study, about 38 by 30 centimetres, was painted in January 1885, in the middle of that campaign. The sitter is a peasant woman in the white cap worn by village women in that part of Brabant. The heads were practice with a purpose, and in April the same year they fed straight into The Potato Eaters, his large painting of a family at supper. This one is now in a private collection.