Cottage 1885

Van Gogh painted this landscape with cottages, using oil on canvas, sometime before 1890. The cottages, modest dwellings with their thatched roofs, harken back to simpler times, to an idealized past of rural life. The cottage, as a symbol, can be traced through centuries of art and folklore. Think of the witch’s gingerbread house in the forest, or the childhood rhyme, ‘I’m a Little Teapot’. Even the early Christian hermits sought refuge in humble dwellings far from the city. This iconography has a long and varied history, where the symbolism associated with 'home' evokes both safety and isolation, nostalgia and the unknown. Here, the rustic cottages almost seem to emerge from the earth itself, blending with the landscape in browns and ochres. Yet, the looming sky hints at psychological undercurrents of anxiety and unease, which recur through time and history. These feelings are inscribed within the cultural memory that the cottages represent. The symbol of the home—whether it be a palace or a meager shack—is continually evolving, reflecting our most primal needs and fears.