Stooks and a Peasant Stacking Sheaves 1885

Curator: This charcoal drawing, titled "Stooks and a Peasant Stacking Sheaves," was created by Vincent van Gogh in 1885. You can find it here at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Editor: It’s interesting, the darkness is so striking, it almost feels somber, not exactly the celebratory harvest scene I’d expect. There’s a weight to it, like the burden of the labor itself is the main subject. Curator: I feel that. The heavy use of charcoal, and even the frottage technique where he rubbed the charcoal to create texture, evokes a sense of the gritty reality of peasant life, especially during that time. Editor: Exactly! It moves beyond just depiction. There’s something to be said about his commitment to portrayals of the working class. In those years, it was a deeply radical, social statement. Did he make it to shed light on social injustice, on the hardships faced by those who literally sustained society through agriculture and physical toil? Curator: Absolutely. He wanted to give dignity to these laborers, representing a reality often glossed over. The individual peasant becomes almost one with the landscape in Van Gogh’s art. The texture feels woven between land and body. Editor: It almost renders invisible these laborers! It becomes almost painful to consider that even today there are similar inequities across agriculture worldwide! One cannot avoid confronting, in some ways, how some bodies are still treated as extensions of the soil they till. Curator: It’s uncomfortable, to be sure, but he doesn't shy away from showing the unvarnished truth, the heavy cost. He captures that rawness so vividly through these charcoal marks and somber tonalities. He reveals that these aren't just piles of harvested grain; these stooks embody hours, days, lives given over to this labor. Editor: It reminds us how deeply connected our survival still is to land, body, and agricultural production, whether it be the 19th century or today. Curator: Seeing "Stooks and a Peasant Stacking Sheaves" reminds us that our contemporary comforts are tethered to difficult realities and to our responsibilities towards making our food production practices, more fair. Editor: A moving and unsettling piece of commentary from Van Gogh, as many of his works tend to be. It really forces reflection, even now.