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 "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 color 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.

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