Portrait of an Old Woman

Van Gogh reached Antwerp at the end of November 1885 and rented a small room above a paint dealer's shop. He was living on very little, and most of what Theo sent went on paint and on models. On 19 December he wrote to his brother that he would rather paint people's eyes than cathedrals, because there is something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn a cathedral is. In the same letter he admitted the practical trouble with that, which is that models have to be paid.

This head of an old woman in a white cap comes out of that winter. It goes under other names as well, the midwife among them, though nothing certain is known about who she was.

In January he enrolled at the Antwerp academy and spent his mornings drawing from plaster casts. By the end of February 1886 he had left for Paris.