Head of a Peasant Woman

Léon-Augustin Lhermitte’s sympathetic and informed portrayals of country life proved popular with Parisian audiences. In this accomplished study, we see him treating his humble subject with the same dignity and intense scrutiny that other artists devoted to paying sitters. The woman’s careworn face reveals inner strength even as her averted eyes suggest world-weary preoccupations. Lhermitte has captured the loose fleshiness of her neck, the hair that refuses to be contained by her bonnet. He took full advantage of the rough texture of his paper, sometimes letting it keep the full load of pigment from the tip of his charcoal, sometimes smoothing over the texture by gently smearing his marks.