What the bad moods are is..

Sien Maria Hoornik, the model behind Vincent Van Gogh's 'Sorrow' drawing was the only domestic partnership he would have. They met in 1881 in the Netherlands. She, along w/her mother, daughter, and baby posed for drawings and paintings for Vincent. When Van Gogh met Sien she was pregnant w/a baby girl (abandoned by the father) and homeless. She was working as a seamstress, cleaning woman, and, ultimately, a sex worker. Sien was very ill when she met Van Gogh. He housed her and her daughter while nursing her back to health. Van Gogh wanted to marry her, but his family opposed it. Sien also wanted to marry him, but it never happened. The relationship ended in the fall of 1883. Sien went back to seamstress and cleaning work, and, possibly, prostitution. In 1901 she married a seaman. 3 years later she threw herself into the Schelde River and drowned. In 1883 she told Van Gogh: "What the bad moods are is still more desperate... it's bound to end up with me jumping into the water."