![Vincent van Gogh - First Steps, after Millet [1890] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5333/9107069608_63c572c0e8.jpg)
In autumn 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 "improvised colour 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.
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 91.1 cm]