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First Steps, after Millet

VR-All-Art

Vincent van Gogh

Oil on canvas

91.1 x 72.4 cm

Not For Sale

In fall 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 "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.

Exhibitions with this piece

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vincent

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vincent Wilien van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter. His work had a great influence on modern art because of its striking colours and emotional power. He suffered from delusions and fits of mental illness. When he was 37, he died by committing suicide. When he was a young man, Van Gogh worked for a company of art dealers. He traveled between The Hague, London and Paris. After that, he taught in England. He then wanted to become a pastor and spread the Gospel, and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining place in Belgium. He began drawing the people there, and in 1885, he painted his first important work, The Potato Eaters. He usually painted in dark colors at this time. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and found out about the French impressionists. Later, he moved to the south of France, and the colors in his art became brighter. His special style of art was developed and later fully grown during the time he stayed in Arles in 1888. Artworks in this exhibition are part of the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Other works by Vincent van Gogh