Head of a Woman with Her Hair Loose
by GOGH, Vincent van, Oil on canvas, 35 x 24 cm
Catalogue numbers: F 206, JH 972.
Van Gogh spent three months in Antwerp where he studied - among others - the portraits by Rubens. He wanted to learn from Rubens the delicacy and distinction which had been inaccessible to him in the village.
In the Head of a Woman with Her Hair Loose van Gogh achieved a degree of artistic sensitivity that had hitherto been beyond him. The portrait is still vigorous, if not indeed violent, in its brushwork, but the colouring is exquisite. Sensitively patterned brushstrokes create a beautifully nuanced, detailed image in which the virtuoso technique has perhaps more important than the subject.