First Steps, after Millet (1890)

Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)

First Steps, after Millet
1890
Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 91.1 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

In fall and winter 188990, while a voluntary patient at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh painted twenty-one copies after Millet, an artist he greatly admired. He considered his copies “translations” akin to a musician’s interpretation of a composer’s work. He let the black-and-white images—whether prints, reproductions, or, as here, a photograph that his brother, Theo, had sent—pose “as a subject,” then he would “improvise color on it.” For this work of January 1890, Van Gogh squared-up a photograph of Millet‘s First Steps and transferred it to the canvas. (MET)

Compare:

Millet, Jean-François (1814-1875)
Les Premiers pas
c.18591866
Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland