Inscribed with the number and title on the verso: '5 Aardappeloogst'

6.2 x 14.4 cm.
Nuenen: early August, 1884
F 1141, JH 510

(Private collection)

In 1884 Van Gogh met Anthonius (Antoon) Petrus Hermans, a retired goldsmith with a passion for art. Hermans wanted to commission a series of religious drawings from Van Gogh, but the artist had other ideas:

"I made this for someone in Eindhoven who wants to decorate a dining room. He wanted to do it with compositions of various saints. I suggested he consider whether 6 scenes from the peasant life of the Meijerij — at the same time symbolizing the 4 seasons — might not whet the appetites of the good folk who would have to sit at table there more than the above-mentioned mystical personages. Well, the man warmed to the idea after visiting the studio."

(Letter 453: c. 4 August 1884)

Although Antoon Hermans was quite wealthy (and retired at the age of fifty-seven), he and Van Gogh didn't have a satisfying conclusion to their business transaction. Van Gogh described Hermans as:

"tight-fisted rather than generous. Something very different from an actual miser, but all the same — I’m earning less (a whole lot less) than nothing."

(Letter 465: 9 October 1884)

www.vangoghletters.org