Boerenvrouw aan het werk (Ewijkshoeve)

Boerenvrouw aan het werk (Ewijkshoeve) — Farm Woman at Work (Ewijkshoeve) — painted around 1900, documents a woman laborer at the Ewijkshoeve estate, part of Witsen's sustained interest in the daily work of both men and women on the farm. Women's agricultural labor was less depicted than men's in the European painting tradition, and Witsen's inclusion of women workers at Ewijkshoeve — in multiple roles — reflects his commitment to documenting the full reality of farm life rather than its picturesque subset. The working pose of the figure, unposed and task-focused, gives the work its documentary authenticity.

Witsen captures the specific posture of a woman engaged in her particular task — the body arranged by function rather than aesthetic consideration — with the same accurate observation he brings to his male farm worker subjects. His Ewijkshoeve palette of warm earth tones provides the outdoor setting's characteristic color environment.