The Kingfisher - by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen from December 1883 to November 1885. Seen in retrospect, his time in Nuenen was one of the most important and most productive periods of his life.

In March and April 1884, Van Gogh started to concentrate on landscape once again. This led to an imposing series of seven pen-and-ink drawings (one of which is lost), which display a quality that is exceptional in his Dutch oeuvre. The promise of his earlier pen-and-ink landscape drawings is fulfilled in these sheets of drawings, which render a poetic and personal view of the southern Dutch landscape. Almost all the drawings (apart from one of an avenue of poplars, which is somewhat stiff) demonstrate his inventiveness in composition and his powerful drawing style.