Portrait of a Woman 1887

Vincent van Gogh painted this portrait of a woman using oil on canvas. Looking at the surface, you can see how the thick application of paint, or impasto, gives the portrait a tactile quality, as if you could reach out and feel the texture of the woman’s skin and clothing. Van Gogh’s application of paint has social significance, particularly his expressive brushstrokes and the rich, earthy tones, which he would have built up layer upon layer, revealing the amount of labor and time that went into creating this artwork. The inherent qualities of oil paint, like its viscosity and drying time, allowed Van Gogh to manipulate the material, imbuing the painting with a sense of movement and emotion. You could say he was part of a long tradition of painters using readily available, relatively inexpensive industrial materials to represent people in a rapidly industrialising world. Ultimately, by recognizing the amount of work involved in the production process, we can appreciate the skill and dedication of the artist, challenging traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.