Head of a Peasant with a Pipe 1885

Vincent van Gogh made this painting, *Head of a Peasant with a Pipe*, using oil paint on canvas. Van Gogh's technique is notable for its expressiveness, the thick impasto application of paint giving a raw, almost sculptural quality to the surface. The brushstrokes, laid down with urgency and visible energy, delineate the form of the peasant’s face, capturing the weight of his labor. The subject, a commoner with his humble attire and smoking pipe, embodies the social reality of rural life at the time, but is also elevated to something monumental. Van Gogh, as a painter, engaged with the material reality of his world, and of course, the labor involved in agriculture. The artwork challenges traditional notions of art and craft by bringing the life and struggles of the working class into the realm of high art. He does so with the materiality of the paint itself, building up a tangible, tactile representation of humanity.