Plaster Cast of a Woman's Torso
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, February-March 1887
oil on canvas, 40.8 cm x 27.1 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
The more you zoom in, the better you can see that Van Gogh used a large network of thin brushstrokes to suggest the forms of the human body. It's almost as if he were drawing in thin paint. You can also see the contrasting colours: green, orange-red and purple. But if you look from a distance (or through your eyelashes), all those colours melt into a warm grey.
Van Gogh based the female torso in this painting on one of his favourite plaster casts: a small copy of a classical sculpture of Venus.
