Les bucherons

This drawing was part of a series by L'Hermitte illustrating the months of the year through rural activities called Les mois rustiques which was engraved for Le Monde illustré ('Supplement', no. 1457) and published throughout 1885. The present composition was for the month of February. Vincent van Gogh particularly admired these images in Le Monde illustré, and wrote to his brother Theo 'If Le Monde Illustré prints a composition by [L'Hermitte] every month — this is part of a series of ‘Rural months’ — it would give me mighty great pleasure to collect this whole series, and I’d really like you to send them every time' (www.vangoghletters.org; 2 March 1885). The woodcutter standing on the tree trunk with his axe raised in L'Hermitte's composition influenced van Gogh's own drawing of the same subject (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, d 81 V/1962; Vincent van Gogh: the drawings, exh. cat., New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005, pp.120-21, under no. 31, fig. 104.).