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First Steps
In stock
SKU
WMET0166
Our Inspiration:First Steps, after Millet
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 35 7/8 in., 1890
Gift of George N. and Helen M. Richard, 1964 64.165.2
In fall and winter 1889–90, while a voluntary patient at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh painted 21 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.
Our Inspiration:First Steps, after Millet
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 35 7/8 in., 1890
Gift of George N. and Helen M. Richard, 1964 64.165.2
In fall and winter 1889–90, while a voluntary patient at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh painted 21 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.