Peasant Woman Peeling Potatoes 1875 - 1922

Suze Robertson painted ‘Peasant Woman Peeling Potatoes’ during a time when the role of women in art and society was being questioned. Robertson, who came from a modest background, often depicted the lives of working-class people, particularly women. Here, the woman’s labor is front and center, yet the setting seems to swallow her in shadow. The dim light filtering through the window emphasizes the long hours and the often unseen work that sustains families. Consider how the painting plays with light and shadow to convey a sense of both intimacy and isolation. Robertson chooses to depict the woman’s quiet endurance and her connection to the land and to the repetitive, often thankless, labor that defines much of women’s lives. Robertson does not romanticize the peasant woman. Instead, the painting invites reflection on the social and economic conditions that shape her existence and invites us to see the strength and humanity in her everyday struggles.