Peasant Woman Cooking by a Fireplace

Executed in Nuenen in late spring 1885, shortly after the completion of The Potato Eaters (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), this work exemplifies Vincent van Gogh’s use of a dark, earthy palette that he evocatively compared to “green soap” or an unpeeled, dust-covered potato. Rejecting idealized sweetness, Van Gogh asserted that a truthful depiction of peasant life must retain its rawness, embracing the tangible smells and textures of rural existence as signs of authenticity rather than flaws.