Vincent Van Gogh - First Steps [1889]

Vincent Van Gogh - First Steps [1889], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In autumn and winter 1889–90, 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 "improvisations" or "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 subject," then he would "improvise colour on it." For this work of January 1890, Van Gogh squared up a photograph of Millet's First Steps, which he then transferred to the canvas.

[Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 91.2 cm]