Woman with a Broom

Van Gogh painted women with brooms as part of his sustained attention to domestic and agricultural labor in Nuenen in 1885. The sweeping figure — bent to her task, physically engaged with the ground — is a Millet subject treated with Van Gogh's characteristic directness. He was deeply influenced by Millet's dignified treatment of rural workers, and his own Nuenen paintings attempt a similar moral seriousness without sentimentality. The Kröller-Müller collection holds this as part of its comprehensive documentation of Van Gogh's Dutch period.

The figure is captured in motion, the act of sweeping rendered through the posture and the relationship between body and broom. Van Gogh's dark Dutch palette dominates — ochres, raw umbers, dark greens — applied with a directness that reflects his daily practice of quick, sustained studies. The background is minimal, all attention directed to the figure.