Vincent van Gogh – The Cottage

The Cottage is the painting Vincent van Gogh made in Nuenen in May 1885: an old cottage under a heavy thatched roof stands at dusk beneath a dark, banded sky with a strip of orange light, a woman in a white cap stands at its door, and bare trees rise on the right. The original measures 65.7 x 79.3 cm and is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 40 x 30 to 190 x 151 cm or to your own measurements, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.

The Cottage – Vincent van Gogh

What does The Cottage show?

The painting shows a low peasant cottage at dusk, seen across open ground. Its thatched roof is far larger than the walls below it: a heavy, sloping mass of brown and dull green with a chimney at the top. The walls are a dark reddish brown, with paler patches of plaster at the left end, a small window there and a row of windows with green frames further right. In the middle of the front, a woman in a dark dress and a white cap stands at the open door.

On the right, two thin bare trees rise above the roofline against the sky, and on the left a second, smaller thatched roof and dark trees close the view. The sky is laid in long horizontal bands of grey, olive and brown, with a strip of orange light low over the roofs. The broad foreground is empty brown earth with a few green touches at the lower right, and the signature Vincent sits in the lower left corner.

Why does one thatched roof cover two homes?

Because this was a double dwelling. According to the Van Gogh Museum, the cottage contains two houses with two front doors and a shared chimney, a type of dwelling that was then on the brink of disappearing. In the painting the woman stands at one door, and a second, darker doorway sits further right along the same wall.

Van Gogh wrote about these two homes himself. In his words, the two cottages, half decayed under one and the same thatched roof, reminded him of a couple of worn-out old folk who make up just one single being and whom one sees supporting each other. According to Wikipedia, one of the two families living here was the De Groot family, whom he painted in The Potato Eaters.

What does the painting mean?

Van Gogh called humble farmhouses like this one people’s nests, and the museum writes that he felt they had a sheltering quality. In the museum’s reading, the old cottage beneath the red evening sky gives an idyllic image of rural life. The painting belongs to the years in which he set out to paint peasant life from close by: inspired by Jean-François Millet and other painters of peasants, he lived for a time as the villagers lived and worked in the fields in all weathers.

The Wikipedia article on Van Gogh’s cottage paintings places it in a group of cottages he painted between 1883 and 1885, alongside his studies of peasants’ heads and figures.

Where is the original today?

The original is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and belongs to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. The museum lists it as The Cottage, Nuenen, May 1885, oil on canvas, 65.7 x 79.3 cm, under the object number s0087V1962. Its Dutch title is De hut.

At the beginning of June 1885 Van Gogh sent it from Nuenen to his brother Theo in Paris. After Theo died on 25 January 1891, it passed to his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, who transferred it to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation on 10 July 1962. Nuenen itself is a small village in North Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands; Van Gogh’s father became its pastor in 1882, and Vincent came to live with his parents there in December 1883.

The Cottage or another early Van Gogh – which to choose?

Two paintings in our range come from the same village. The Potato Eaters was painted in Nuenen in 1885 and shows peasants at their meal indoors, the family who, according to Wikipedia, lived in this very cottage. Still Life with Bible is also from Nuenen in 1885. Choose The Cottage if you want the village itself: a building, open ground and an evening sky, rather than figures or objects on a table.

A Pair of Shoes is from 1886 in Paris, and The Yellow House from 1888 in Arles, where a house is the subject once more. The museum notes that four years after The Cottage, in France, he returned to drawing and painting old houses, by then with bright colours and loose brushwork, and next to them this dark cottage shows where he started.

How is our hand-painted Cottage made?

The painter first sets out the outline of the roof, the line of the walls, the doors and the two trees. Then come the banded sky, the strip of orange light and the brown ground, and last the thatch in thick, layered strokes, the windows and the woman at the door. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand on canvas, with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as they do in the original and catch the light.

On this painting the relief matters most in the thatch, in the long strokes of the evening sky and in the earth of the foreground. A print is completely flat; on our painting every brushstroke stands out in real paint.

Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 70 x 60 or 79 x 66 cm above a sideboard, a desk or a bed, 120 x 100 or 140 x 105 cm above a sofa, and 190 x 151 cm for a large wall. The landscape format suits a long wall above furniture, a dining room or a study.

There are 17 sizes: 40 x 30, 50 x 39, 50 x 40, 55 x 45, 60 x 50, 63 x 48, 70 x 60, 79 x 66, 90 x 71, 100 x 80, 120 x 100, 140 x 105, 150 x 120, 160 x 127, 170 x 134, 180 x 142 and 190 x 151 cm (width x height). The original is 79.3 cm wide and 65.7 cm high, so our 79 x 66 cm size is almost exactly its size. With its deep browns, olive greens and the orange light in the sky, it sits well on a warm white, cream or light beige wall. A 40 x 30 cm size fits above a bedside table or on a bookshelf. A painting for the living room should take up about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it.

Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, leaving 20 to 30 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the canvas. A dark subject like this one looks best where daylight or a lamp falls on it.

What if I need a custom size or a frame?

If none of the 17 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure. Keep the proportions close to the original, otherwise the cottage gets squeezed or the roof stretched. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote you a price and a delivery time. Every painting we make is mounted on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang.

Our 3D app shows each of our frame profiles on this painting, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood. The app is for choosing the frame only. To see the painting on your own wall, use our separate room placement service. A gold frame picks up the orange light in the sky, and a dark wood frame suits the browns of the thatch and the earth.

How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?

Every painting is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it on its stretcher, carefully packed (and framed, if you chose a frame), across the EU with no customs duty. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.

You will find more of Van Gogh’s famous works among all our Vincent van Gogh paintings, and there is more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If you are giving it as a present and are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original of The Cottage today?

In the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam; it belongs to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. The museum lists it as The Cottage, Nuenen, May 1885, oil on canvas, 65.7 x 79.3 cm, with the object number s0087V1962. Van Gogh sent it to his brother Theo in Paris at the beginning of June 1885, and it stayed with the Van Gogh family until it was transferred to the foundation in 1962.

When and where did Van Gogh paint The Cottage?

In May 1885 in Nuenen, a small village in North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands. His father had been pastor there since 1882, and Vincent lived with his parents from December 1883. At the beginning of June 1885 he sent it to his brother Theo in Paris.

Is The Cottage connected with The Potato Eaters?

Yes, in two ways. Both were painted in Nuenen in 1885, while Van Gogh was working on peasant life, and according to Wikipedia the De Groot family, whom he painted in The Potato Eaters, lived in this cottage together with another family. The Potato Eaters shows peasants at their meal indoors; The Cottage shows a peasant home from outside at dusk.

Why did Van Gogh call a cottage like this a people’s nest?

Because, as the Van Gogh Museum explains, he felt these humble farmhouses had a sheltering quality. He called them people’s nests. Of this double cottage he wrote that the two homes, half decayed under one thatched roof, reminded him of a couple of worn-out old folk who make up one single being and whom one sees supporting each other.

Why is The Cottage painted in such dark colours?

Because it shows a cottage at dusk, under what the museum calls a red evening sky, and because it was painted in Nuenen in 1885, before his years in France. The museum notes that four years later, in France, he painted old houses again, but by then with bright colours and loose brushwork. Here browns, olive greens and greys set off the orange light.

How big is the original of The Cottage?

The original is 65.7 cm high and 79.3 cm wide, a landscape format. Our 79 x 66 cm size is almost exactly its size, and there are smaller and larger sizes from 40 x 30 up to 190 x 151 cm, as well as custom sizes painted to measure. Above a sofa, 120 x 100 or 140 x 105 cm is a good choice, and 70 x 60 cm suits a desk or a sideboard.

Does your painting of The Cottage have the raised brushstrokes of the original?

Yes. We paint it in impasto, building up each brushstroke in thick oil, so the surface is raised like Van Gogh’s original. You see this best in the layered strokes of the thatched roof, in the long bands of the evening sky and in the brown earth of the foreground, where the relief catches the light and changes as you walk past the painting.

Is The Cottage a good gift?

It suits someone who is drawn to Van Gogh’s early Dutch years, to village life and old farmhouses, or to the story behind The Potato Eaters, and it works well in a dining room, a study or above a long sideboard. As a canvas painting in warm browns and olive greens with a band of orange light, it brings a calm evening mood into a room, and a voucher lets the recipient choose the size.

• Subject: an old double cottage under one thatched roof at dusk, with a woman at the door, bare trees on the right and a strip of orange light in a dark sky.
• Original: May 1885, Nuenen, 65.7 x 79.3 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
• Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 40 x 30 to 190 x 151 cm or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: our 79 x 66 cm size is almost exactly the size of the original in Amsterdam.