Sien with Cigar Sitting on the Floor near Stove

Catalogue numbers: F 898, JH 141.

Van Gogh settled in The Hague in late December 1881. At the beginning of 1882, he got to know Clasina Maria ("Sien") Hoornik (1850-1904), a drunken woman who had spent her life in a state of moral and physical misery. He brought her and her children to live in his house and used her as a model. She drank and smoked cigars while he had to go hungry. Sien initially earned her bread as a prostitute and was already pregnant when she met van Gogh. Vincent was ready to marry her, but his brother Theo was against it. This relationship lasted eighteen months.

Between March and May 1882, van Gogh did a series of large-size drawings of Sien of which the present drawing is probably the first and most impressive piece.