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First Steps, after Millet

1890
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 825
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: First Steps, after Millet
  • Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
  • Date: 1890
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 1/2 x 35 7/8 in. (72.4 x 91.1 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of George N. and Helen M. Richard, 1964
  • Object Number: 64.165.2
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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