Head of a girl

Van Gogh's informal portrait studies of Arles women are less celebrated than his Roulin family series or his Zouave portraits, but they form an important part of his sustained commitment to figure work throughout the southern period. This Head of a Girl from 1888 captures a young Arlésienne — a woman of the south, whose appearance and character were unlike the models and peasants of his Dutch years. The women of Arles had a reputation, going back through Provençal literature to Mistral and beyond, for particular beauty and distinctiveness, and Van Gogh was aware of this cultural cliché while trying to see through it to actual individuals. He wrote to Theo that he wanted to paint the local women with the same documentary seriousness he had brought to the Nuenen peasants: their specific appearance, their actual expression, not the sentimentalized Provençal ideal. The head study format allowed him to focus entirely on the face without the complications of costume, setting, or social context, and the resulting portraits have a directness that makes them among his most intimate works. The work's unlocated status is unfortunately common for the more modest Arles portrait studies.

The girl's face is rendered with Van Gogh's direct portrait observation, the youthful features given specific attention without academic idealization. His Arles palette brings warm color to the face. Brushwork is characteristic of his mature approach — confident, directional strokes building form and character simultaneously.