Plaster Statuette of a Female Torso 1886

Vincent van Gogh created this painting of a plaster statuette of a female torso sometime before his death in 1890. The fragmented female form, set against a deep blue backdrop, asks us to consider how the female body has been represented and idealized throughout art history. As the 19th century progressed, artists began to challenge the strict academic traditions that had long dictated artistic standards. The fragmented torso embodies this departure, inviting viewers to see beauty in the incomplete, and to find emotional depth in the unidealized form. Van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo, wrote of his desire to capture "the inner light" of his subjects, to look beyond surface appearances to the core of their being. The raw brushstrokes and stark lighting evoke the artist’s emotional intensity. The painting challenges traditional representations of women in art, and invites a more intimate, and perhaps even vulnerable, viewing experience.