Digger in a Potato Field: February
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Nuenen, July-September 1885
chalk on paper, 54.5 cm x 42.4 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
It’s hard to spot, but zoom in on the bottom left-hand corner of this drawing and you can just make out two lines written in French in Van Gogh’s hand. The words translate as ‘digger in a potato field, February’. He probably intended to produce a traditional series of pictures of work on the land, one for each month of the year.
From his letters, we know that Van Gogh did not in fact draw this raw-boned peasant in February, but in the summer of 1885. It’s amazing that he could persuade a farm worker to pose for him right in the middle of the busy harvest period.
- F-number
- F1302
- JH-number
- JH0859
- Object number
- d0179V1962
- Dimensions
- 54.5 cm x 42.4 cm
- Provenance
- With his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, after September 1885; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, since 22 October 1931; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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