1882-05 · The Hague · Knot of Silence

The Hague and Sien

He said he went to help her; he could not. This is not a tragedy that has been covered over, but something he never quite worked out himself.

F929 Sorrow 1882

Painting

Sorrow is not an oil painting. It is a black-pencil drawing, 44 × 27 cm. A naked woman sits on the ground, knees clasped to her chest, face buried in her arms. She is thin enough to count the ribs. Beneath her, a line: "How can it be that there is, on earth, a woman alone — abandoned." This is not a nude. It is a verdict — drawn with the simplest pencil he had, on the people he believed the world had thrown away.

Letter

May 1882, The Hague. He wrote to Theo: I have found a model — a woman who is pregnant, whom I drew once this winter. The family disapproved; his teacher Mauve stopped teaching him. He wrote: "If a woman is alone, abandoned — she cannot be bad." He moved in with Sien, who already had a child and was carrying another. This was Vincent's briefest, most actual family.

Place

The Hague, the edge of Scheveningen — a half-basement in a workers' district, damp, unheated, a window to a sea he barely painted. He drew Sien, her mother, the soup-kitchen old, infants leaving the maternity ward. This was 1882, his second year as an artist; he was thirty, living with a pregnant woman the whole family had told him to leave. It was the briefest household he ever had and the closest he came to one.

before

He wanted to paint workers and the poor, and to live among them rather than observe from a distance. Sien was a prostitute with a child; he met her on the street.

now

They lived together. Theo disapproved; his family disapproved. For a time he seriously considered making a family with her — his reasoning was that she and the child needed something to lean on, and he felt he could help.

after

The relationship broke down two years later. He did not set down clearly why he left, and afterward he hardly mentioned her again.

Events

1882-01 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 222
Met Sien Hoornik on a street corner — pregnant, without a coat. Decided to make her his model
1882-05 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 224
Wrote to Theo: 'I have found a model — a woman who is pregnant, whom I drew once this winter.'
1882-05 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 224
Completed Sorrow — pencil drawing, 44 × 27 cm. Wrote Michelet's line beneath: 'How can it be that there is, on earth, a woman alone — abandoned.'
1882-06 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 228
Copied entire passages of Michelet's La femme and L'amour into letters to Theo. Zola's Le ventre de Paris sat on his desk
1882-07 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 228
Wrote: 'I feel that my work lies in the heart of the people — that I must keep close to the ground.' Moved in with Sien, forming a brief family
1882-09 The Colour Experimenter · Letter 232
His teacher Mauve broke off contact; Theo's allowance became the only income. He began experimenting with watercolour — the colour experimenter was already practising the language of colour even in his drawing years
1883-09 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 245
Under family pressure he was forced to leave Sien. The closest thing to a family in his life ended abruptly — back into the silence of letters

From the Letters

Ik heb een model gevonden — een vrouw die zwanger is en die ik dit winter al eens geteekend heb.

I have found a model — a woman who is pregnant and whom I drew once this winter.

Letter 224

Hoe kan het dat er op aarde een vrouw alleen is — verlaten — als die vrouw niet slecht is.

How can it be that there is on earth a woman alone — abandoned — if that woman is not bad.

Letter 224

Ik voel dat mijn werk in het hart van het volk ligt, dat ik mij in mijn werk moet houden aan de grond.

I feel that my work lies in the heart of the people, that I must keep close to the ground in my work.

Letter 228

Letter Sources

Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org