Vincent van Gogh - The Plough and the Harrow after Millet 1890

First Steps after Millet 1890 Morning Peasant Couple Going to Work 1890 Noon Rest from Work after Millet 1890 The Plough and the Harrow after Millet 1890 Blossoming Almond Tree 1890 Cypresses and Two Women 1890 The Drinkers 1890
The Plough and the Harrow after Millet 1890

The Plough and the Harrow after Millet 1890
72x92cm oil/canvas
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum

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Jean-François Millet was a master to whose works Vincent van Gogh constantly returned, reflecting on them, studying and copying them. Millet's The Four Hours of the Day was constantly in Van Gogh's sight. In 1875, describing the room he had rented in Montmartre, he lists this series among the engravings he has chosen to decorate it. In November 1889 - January 1890, in the asylum in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh executed the entire series of paintings from The Four Hours of the Day on the largest canvases he had available. In a letter to his brother the artist wrote: "Working on Millet's drawings and wood engravings cannot be considered copying in the strict sense of the word. It is rather translation into another language, the language of paints, of impressions created by the black-and-white light and shadow."