Farmer (or The Answer), 1911

In his memoires, entitled Karel en ik [Karel (his brother) and myself], Gustave Van de Woestyne described the peasant portrayed here as ‘a little man’ who came to work in their garden every evening. ‘One couldn’t bear to watch what he did, only listen to what he said.’ And this is how Van de Woestyne painted him, busy telling his story with an animated expression on his face. The style in which his head is painted is reminiscent of the farmer’s heads by Peter Bruegel the Elder. On the back of the painting Van de Woestyne wrote a second title, The Answer. In this way he probably wanted to give the painting a more profound meaning. After all, it was in the simplicity of rural life that the artist found the answer to the existential questions he himself was struggling with.