People's Nests
The Cottage
Van Gogh was fascinated by the simple huts of peasants and workers. Wherever he went, he drew and painted them. Over the years, his style of painting changed radically. He painted this hut in Nuenen (NL) in realistic, sombre earth tones. The cottages he painted four years later in France are rendered in bright colours, with looser brushwork.
Poor weavers and day labourers lived in the huts, but their poverty was not what Van Gogh wanted to portray. To him, their small living spaces had a cosy quality, as if they were ‘people's nests’:
‘The thing struck me greatly; those two cottages, half decayed under one and the same thatched roof, reminded me of a couple of worn-out old folk who make up just one single being and whom one sees supporting each other. For you see, they are two dwellings and the chimney is double. One sees that here a lot, by the way.’
Letter to Theo van Gogh, Nuenen, c. 2 June 1885
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
‘The cottage with the mossy roof reminded me of a wren’s nest’, Van Gogh wrote. This was his favourite kind of bird's nest. In this still life he painted two of them (see back row).
Birds’ Nests, 1885
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
I don’t know whether you’ll see anything in these two things — the cottage with the mossy roof reminded me of a wren’s nest. Anyway, you must just look at them.
Letter to Theo van Gogh. Nuenen, on or about Tuesday, 9 June 1885
