Sorrow is a drawing by
Vincent van Gogh produced in 1882. The work was created two years after Van Gogh had decided to become an artist. It depicts a 32-year-old pregnant woman, Clasina Maria Hoornik, familiarly known as
Sien.
Sorrow is widely acknowledged as a masterwork of draftsmanship, the culmination of a long and sometimes uncertain apprenticeship by Van Gogh in learning his craft. The drawing is part of the
Garman Ryan Collection held at
The New Art Gallery Walsall. Previously, it was in the private collection of artist
Sally Ryan, who had the work hung in her permanent suite at the
Dorchester Hotel in London. The drawing is one of a series using
Sien Hoornik as model. It is mentioned in a number of letters by Van Gogh, and he appears to have thought highly of it, considering it an important work and describing the drawing as "the best figure I've drawn". In a letter from July 1882 Van Gogh states;
I want to make drawings that touch some people. Sorrow is a small beginning [...] there is at least something directly from my own heart. The piece is numbered as F929a in the
catalogue raisonné by
Jacob Baart de la Faille.