The theme of women washing reappeared across Van Gogh’s oeuvre during this period, featuring in several different configurations and contexts. For example, the present drawing is very similar in composition and pose to Boerin die een pot schoonmaakt, now in the Kröller-Müller Museum (Hulsker, no. 906), while Boerenvrouw die de was klaarlegt (Hulsker, no. 908) explores another aspect of the laborious task, in which the laundry is sorted and reviewed before being added to the basin.

Using a mixture of black crayon, pen, black and sepia ink and pencil, Van Gogh captures the scene through a myriad of rapid, overlapping lines, imbuing the figures with volume and a sense of internal energy, his hand lightly blending the pigments in certain areas to create soft shadows and depth.

Capturing this sense of movement was an essential element to Van Gogh’s vision at this time: ‘Showing the FIGURE OF THE PEASANT IN ACTION,’ he wrote, ‘you see that’s what a figure is – I repeat – essentially modern – the heart of modern art itself – that which neither the Greeks, nor the Renaissance, nor the old Dutch school have done… this is a matter I think about every day’ (letter no. 515; 14 July 1885, in ibid., p. 266). The pose in Boerin bij de wastobbe, in een tuin is strikingly similar to Van Gogh’s heroic depictions of farmers and labourers harvesting or planting in the fields from these years. In this way, Van Gogh connects the everyday task of laundering clothes, traditionally viewed as ‘women’s work,’ to the wider cycles of manual labour which were essential to the welfare and successful running of the community, celebrating the contribution of the ordinary people and, most importantly, the women of Nuenen to life in the town.