• Col. C. Mouwen Jr., Breda, The Netherlands
• Galerie d’Art Oldenzeel, Rotterdam
• H. van Ogtrop-van Kempen, Aalst, The Netherlands (acquired by 1929)
• Mrs. H. van Ogtrop-van Kempen, Aalst, The Netherlands (by descent from the above)
• E.J. van Wisselingh, Amsterdam
• Private Collection, Spain (and sold: Sotheby's, London, June 30, 1981, lot 27a)
• Piccadilly Gallery, London (acquired at the above sale)
• Landau Fine Art, Montreal
• Acquired from the above in 1998
• Sotheby's, New York, 7 May 2014, lot 45: $1,205,000
• Private Collection
• M.S. Rau, New Orleans

• Rotterdam, Galerie d’Art, Oldenzeel, Vincent van Gogh, 1903

Catalogues raisonnés:

• F146: Faille, Jacob Baart de la (1970) [1928] The Works of Vincent van Gogh. His Paintings and Drawings, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, nr 146 .
• JH551 : Jan Hulsker (1980), The Complete Van Gogh, Oxford: Phaidon, nr  551.
  
  

In the winter of 1884, Vincent embarked on a series of portrait studies he called 'heads of the people' after a similarly titled series by Hubert von Herkomer published in The Graphic, a graphic artist he especially admired. In the end he produced some 50 of these studies, declaring "one must paint the peasants as if one were one of them, as feeling, thinking as they do themselves" (Naifeh and Smith, pp. 412-3, letter 484). These were the forerunner of his celebrated The Potato Eaters executed a few months later (Hulsker p. 136).

• ; Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White (2011) Van Gogh: The Life, Profile Books ISBN: 978-1846680106.
• vangoghgallery.com
• Sotheby's, New York, 7 mei 2014, lot 45