Young Peasant

Van Gogh's Young Peasant (1889) was painted during his voluntary confinement at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a period of extraordinary creative output despite recurring mental crises. The painting of a local Provençal youth demonstrates his sustained interest in the working people of his various French locations — a commitment rooted in his early admiration for Millet and his lifelong sympathy for agricultural labor. The youth's direct gaze and the saturated Provençal setting reflect the intense, visionary quality that characterizes the Saint-Rémy paintings. The work is now in Rome's Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna.

Van Gogh renders the young peasant with the rhythmic, energized brushwork of his Saint-Rémy period — short, curved strokes in the background swirling against the more resolved modeling of the face and clothing. His palette is dominated by warm yellows and blues — the Provençal sun and shadow — applied with confident directness.