Head of a Young Peasant in a Peaked Cap

Van Gogh's 1885 head of a young peasant in a peaked cap belongs to the Nuenen series of character studies that documented the community's younger generation alongside the older weathered faces he more typically depicted. The peaked cap was a working-man's everyday headgear, and the young man wearing it has not yet accumulated the visible evidence of decades of labor that marks the older peasant faces. Van Gogh renders youth without sentimentality, finding in the young face the same direct, specific character he sought in every subject. The Fin-de-Siècle Museum in Brussels holds this work.

The young face is modeled with Van Gogh's characteristic Nuenen palette — dark and earthy — but the relative smoothness of youth modifies the weathered texture typical of older subjects. The peaked cap provides a visual anchor above the face. Brushwork is direct and confident throughout, the face receiving focused observational attention.