Vincent van Gogh is world-famous. Did you know that in 1883, Van Gogh spent three months living in Drenthe? This was a short yet significant period in his life. Here, he developed his passion for painting.
Artist friends recommended that Van Gogh visit Drenthe to…
Vincent van Gogh is world-famous. Did you know that in 1883, Van Gogh spent three months living in Drenthe? This was a short yet significant period in his life. Here, he developed his passion for painting.
Artist friends recommended that Van Gogh visit Drenthe to be inspired by the primeval landscape and the Drenthe peat labourers. There are vista panels just like this one in various locations throughout the Drenthe landscape. Looking through the panels, you look into the landscape as if through Vincent van Gogh's eyes standing in the places that inspired him.
The Peat Barge
The painting The Peat Barge by Vincent van Gogh was probably created in these surroundings. It shows a scene of a man and woman loading a ‘turfpraam’, a peat barge. The so-called ‘praam’ is an inland waterway vessel. On land, the skipper pushes a wheelbarrow full of peat up the gangplank. The woman is bent over, stacking the peat onto the small wooden barge. It was hard work.
Peat extraction was in full swing in this region at the end of the nineteenth century. Peat was used as fuel to heat homes.
Some 2,000 people worked in peat extraction at the time. Peat cutting and turning the wet and heavy turf was men’s work, while drying the peat and loading the ships was usually done by women. Around 22 October 1883, Vincent van Gogh sketched a peat barge in a letter to his brother Theo.
THESE VISTA PANELS ARE PART OF THE THREE SIGNPOSTED VAN GOGH CYCLING ROUTES.
THE ROUTES CAN BE DOWNLOADED AT
