Head of a young peasant with a Pipe

Through the winter of 1884 into 1885, in the Brabant village of Nuenen, Van Gogh worked on what he called heads of the people. He took the phrase from a series of wood engravings of English working men and women published in the London weekly The Graphic, drawn by Hubert von Herkomer among others, prints he collected and kept going back to. Around 40 painted heads came out of that one winter, the sitters found among his neighbours, weavers and farmhands and women in white caps. The scheme stays the same in each: the head from the shoulders up, a dark ground behind it, the sitter in working clothes. Here that includes the pipe. The canvas is under 40 centimetres tall, which puts the head close to life size.