Peasant Woman with a Rake (after Millet)

Van Gogh's Peasant Woman with a Rake (after Millet) from 1889 is another of his Saint-Rémy interpretations of Millet's labor subjects, translating the French master's black-and-white engraving into Van Gogh's own colored chromatic language. The raking woman — a universal agricultural figure of gathering and tidying — was for both Millet and Van Gogh a subject of dignity, the human figure engaged in purposeful labor with simple tools against an open landscape. Van Gogh's translation adds his characteristic warm-cool complementary contrasts to Millet's monochrome. The work is currently unlocated or in private hands.

Van Gogh's version of the raking woman brings Millet's figure into his own coloristic world — warm earth tones and cooler sky in his characteristic complementary relationship. The figure's posture of raking is translated faithfully while every surface receives his Saint-Rémy energy. The background landscape is handled more freely than the figure.