1890, Vincent van Gogh, First Steps, after Millet (detail) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: 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.
Link to the full painting.
Link to other van Gogh paintings.
1890, Vincent van Gogh, First Steps, after Millet (detail) -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: 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.
Link to the full painting.
Link to other van Gogh paintings.