Tête de paysanne à la coiffe sombre

Through the winter of 1884 and 1885 Van Gogh was living in the Dutch village of Nuenen, where his father was the pastor, and he set himself an exercise. Heads of local peasants, painted from life, one after another. He got through around 40 of them. At a glance they are nearly interchangeable, shoulders up, dark ground, the sitter in working clothes and a cap. He was teaching himself to build a face out of the colours actually in it, and in April 1885 he spent what he had learned on The Potato Eaters. This head is dated to February 1885, and it hangs now in the Hecht Museum on the campus of the University of Haifa.