Is This Van Gogh’s One True Love? Sketches of Sien

Working People

Impressed by the genre work of Jean-François Millet, Van Gogh saw nobility in the working lives of real people. He felt connected to the cycles of nature and how the cycles of humanity fit within that. But this was also a time of social transformation—industrialization and the move to cities changed livelihoods; however, it didn’t seem to change poverty wages. Wherever the people were, Van Gogh was with them, in the streets and in the fields, living their lifestyle. He had a dream of opening a studio where the poor could pose for food and money.

Convenience or Compassion?

Vincent met Sien in the street, where she was clearly in distress. She was destitute and pregnant. He took her in as an artist’s model and tried to protect her and her children from hunger and cold. He felt that he was doing a “good thing.” People often assume that Van Gogh lived with Hoornik purely out of pity or a distorted sense of duty. Others say it was a relationship of convenience, an artist’s model and free sex in exchange for a roof and some food. But Vincent had considered marrying Sien, and almost two years is a long time for a relationship of pure convenience.

Seamstress or Prostitute?

Almost always referred to as a prostitute, Sien Hoornik was actually a seamstress by trade. However, feeding her mother and her two children on that work was almost impossible. She was neither the first nor the last woman who turned to sex work to keep a roof over her head and to keep her babies’ stomachs full. Abandoned twice by the men in her life, Sien had no support, nowhere to turn.

Van Gogh had no judgment, just compassion for “those women whom the clergymen damn so and superciliously despise and condemn from the pulpit.” He cared deeply about the real social issues that led women to sex work.

The Woman He Loves

In stark contrast to his “anti-social loner” profile, Van Gogh longed for a family—domesticity, care, love, and community. Six months after they met, Sien gave birth to a baby boy. And just days after the birth, Vincent wrote to his brother about his domestic space and some sketches he was doing:

A Sociable Little Fellow

A very happy summer of domestic contentment settled on this little patchwork family. Vincent was drawing, and Sien, her mother, and five-year-old Wilhelmina were settled in the house. The baby William seems to have enraptured Van Gogh, who wrote about him:

The Sketches

The tone and temperament of his portraits of Sien varied widely. Some were frank and ordinary depictions of everyday life, such as in his Soup Kitchen works. Some were filled with despair and anguish, such as Sorrow. Some sketches show familial warmth and affection, such as Girl Kneeling by A Cradle (shown below). And yet others show the dispassionate eye of the discerning artist, more concerned with composition, lighting, and pose, such as Woman Sewing, with a Girl.

A Brilliant Draftsman

The drawing Sorrow (below) is widely acknowledged as a masterwork of draftsmanship, as Van Gogh grew into his talent. His preferred drawing tool was a reed pen, which is simply a piece of hollow reed stem, dried and shaped to a chisel point. Rembrandt had used one, which must have impressed Van Gogh, but most artists preferred a quill or a nibbed pen.

The reed was inflexible and didn’t hold much ink, as evidenced by the short, blunt strokes in many of Van Gogh’s drawings. Much of this work followed a sombre, dark palette. It was only when he met the Post-Impressionists in Paris that his palette became brighter and more colorful.

Sorrow

The drawing of a pregnant Sien is inscribed with the phrase ”Comment se fait-il qu’il y ait sur la terre une femme seule, délaissée?,” which translates to “How can there be on earth a woman alone, abandoned?” This is a quotation from an 1860 publication called La Femme (The Woman) by social historian Jules Michelet. The phrase is a clear link to Van Gogh’s belief that poverty was at the root of so many social ills. The deprivation and depression of the woman are evident in her drooping body and her vulnerable pose. But there are spring flowers present, perhaps a small sign of hope? Van Gogh said of the drawing:

Family Pressure

The two lovers considered marriage, but Vincent came under intense pressure from his family, who insisted he must not marry below his social station. The threat they held over him was immense—without their financial support, Van Gogh could never pursue his art. In a letter to Theo, Vincent rails against the rules imposed on him, albeit with some sly humor:

Leaving Sien

After 18 months, the domestic dream started to fail. Both Vincent and Sien suffered physically and emotionally during their time together. This was not a fairytale romance after all. They lived in poverty, and they both had health problems and ongoing issues from sexually transmitted diseases. As Van Gogh became more involved with his work, he became less available to his little family. Sien was pressured by her mother to return to sex work in order to pay rent and feed her children.

The end came in September 1883 when Van Gogh left for Drenthe, in the northeast of the Netherlands, to concentrate on landscape painting. Sien was left behind in The Hague with her children. She married in 1901, but sadly died by suicide in 1904, something she had predicted she would do during her time with Vincent.

Does Society Hate Sex Workers?

In a BBC World Service program from 1990, two art historians discussed Hoornik in the most dismissive and patronizing way. They are unable to accept that Vincent van Gogh could have had any true feelings towards a sex worker who doesn’t meet their ideals of feminine beauty or appropriate female roles.

Male art critic: When I look at this drawing of Sien Hoornik, the prostitute, I find it almost impossible to imagine why on earth Vincent might have thought he wanted to marry her. He was only 28, she looks a good deal older. One can only presume, perhaps, it was the idea of marriage rather than this particular woman that appealed to him. What do you make of her when you look at her?

Female art critic: Well, she’s certainly no beauty, is she? She’s got a long nose, and a sulky-looking mouth, she looks miserable, she looks lazy, she’s smoking in a rather indolent fashion. She’s got the cradle at her foot; she doesn’t seem particularly interested in the child, not a very attractive person, really.¹

Protest

Vincent van Gogh painted reality as he saw it, making his art infinitely accessible and utterly human. Today we should remember that when artists and their politics become inextricably intertwined, not only do we get great art, but also something which might effect true and lasting social change.

Poverty is neither novel nor exotic, although there are artists out there who take great delight in romanticized portrayals of the seedier side of life. Vincent van Gogh saw with a realist’s eye, and he painted with a compassionate hand.

Gritty Social Commentary

Politics and art are a heady mix. And although we often think of protest art as a modern phenomenon, it has been around as long as we have scratched marks on walls with our caveman hands. Today, our thoughts might jump to the graffiti works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Picasso’s Guernica, or British Banksy. Remember also Goya’s Disasters of War. Van Gogh’s works, especially his portraits of Sien, are significant yet overlooked examples of social commentary in art.

Fame and Glory

Sien played a vital, if short-lived, part in Vincent van Gogh’s story. His compelling correspondence to his brother Theo gives us unique access to his thoughts and feelings about this woman, her children, and their life together. Van Gogh’s life was short and often difficult. The same can be said of Sien Hoornik. Attention (and money) only arrived posthumously for them both. Today, sketches of Sien, the poverty-stricken prostitute, are worth a small fortune, and I am sure the irony of that would not be lost on Vincent.