Print of Vincent van Gogh - Weaver on the loom facing left - 1884
Vincent van Gogh - Weaver at the loom facing left
Year: 1884 - oil on canvas 84.4x62.5 cm
Preserved at: Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Vincent van Gogh in 1883 wrote “A weaver who has to direct and weave a large number of small threads has no time to philosophize about them, but rather is so engrossed in his work that he does not think, but acts, and feels how things must go, rather than explain it ”.
The weaver lived a poor life of which the painter was fully aware. In fact, in a letter to his brother Theo he wrote: “Their life is hard. A hard-working weaver makes a patch of about 60 meters a week. While weaving, the wife has to sit opposite him, unraveling the threads, so there are two people who work and have to make a living from their work ”.
This condition is expressed by the colors for the weaver, the loom and the spinning wheel: dark colors in contrast to the red fabric on the loom.