Women on the Peat Moor

In September 1883 Van Gogh left The Hague for Drenthe, in the far north-east of the Netherlands, where living was cheap and whole stretches of moor were being cut away for fuel. He stayed about two months, much of it in the village of Nieuw-Amsterdam, and moved between the diggings on the barges that carried the peat out to the towns. What these women are doing is the last stage of that trade. Sods are cut in spring, left on the open moor through the summer, and gathered once the wind has dried them. There were four figures on this canvas when he began. He painted two of them out.