Copies after Millet, and others
Encyclopedia
Copies by Vincent van Gogh, form an important group of paintings executed by Vincent van Gogh
between 1887 and early 1890. While at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
, France where Van Gogh admitted himself, he strived to have subjects during the cold winter months. Seeking to be reinvigorated artistically, Van Gogh did more than 30 copies of works by some of his favorite artists. About twenty-one of the works were copies after, or inspired by Jean-François Millet
. Rather than replicate, Van Gogh sought to translate the subjects and composition through his perspective, color, and technique. Spiritual meaning and emotional comfort were expressed through symbolism and color. His brother Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
would call the pieces in the series some of his best work.
) marks the start of an series of paintings that Van Gogh made after artists such as Jean-François Millet
, Honoré Daumier
and Rembrandt. Millet's work, who greatly influenced Van Gogh, figures prominently in this series. He wrote to Theo about these copies: "I started making them inadvertently and now find that I can learn from them and that they give me a kind of comfort. My brush then moves through my fingers like a bow over the stings of a violin – completely for my pleasure."
Several religious works, such as The Pietà, were included in the series, notable exceptions in his oeuvre
. Saint-Paul asylum, housed in a old monastery, may have provided some of the inspiration for the specific subject. The nuns devoutness sometimes annoyed him, but he did find solace in religion. He wrote: "I am not indifferent, and pious thoughts often console me in my suffering."
Van Gogh Museum
asserts that Van Gogh may have identified with Christ "who had also suffered and been misunderstood." They also offer the conjecture of some scholars of a resemblance between the Van Gogh and the red-bearded Christ in The Pietà and Lazarus
in the copy after Rembrandt. However it is unknown whether or not this was Van Gogh's intention.
, an artist and Catholic mystic
, was a close personal friend to Van Gogh. Bernard influenced Van Gogh artistically several ways. Bernard outlined figures in black, replicating the look of religious woodcut
images of the Middle Ages
. This resulted in a flattened, more primitive work. Van Gogh's Crows over the Wheatfield is one example of how Bernard's simplified form influenced his work. Bernard also taught Van Gogh about how to manipulate perspective in his work. Just as Van Gogh used color to express emotion, he used distortion of perspective
as a means of artistic expression and a vehicle to "modernize" his work.
As a demonstration of the sharing of artistic viewpoints, Van Gogh painted a copy in watercolor of a sketch made by Bernard of Breton woman
. Van Gogh wrote to Bernard of a utopian ideal where artists worked cooperatively, focused on a common idea, to reach heights artistically "beyond the power of the isolated individual." As a means of clarification, he stated that did not mean that several painters would work on the same picture, but they will each create a work that "nonetheless belong together and complement each other." The Breton Women is one of many examples of how Van Gogh and one of his friend's brought their unique temperaments and skills to a single idea.
Van Gogh wrote to Bernard his trade of the Breton Women to Paul Gauguin
: "Let me make it perfectly clear that I was looking forward to seeing the sort of things that are in that painting of yours which Gauguin has, those Breton
women walking in a meadow so beautifully composed, the colour with such naive distinction." Gauguin made a work, Breton Women at a Pardon
which was may have been inspired by Bernard's work of Breton women.
The Four Ages of a Drinker both beautiful and soulful.
Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo of Daumier's artistic perspective and humanity: "What impressed me so much at the time was something so stout and manly in Daumier's conception, something that made me think It must be good to think and to feel like that and to overlook or ignore a multitude of things and to concentrate on what makes us sit up and think and what touches us as human beings more directly and personally than meadows or clouds." Daumier's artistic talents included painting, sculpting and creating lithographs. He was well known for his social and political commentary.
Van Gogh made Men Drinking after Daumier's work in Saint-Remy about February 1890.
Pieta and Good Samaritan. Rather than representing "a triumphant Christ in glory," he depicted Christ in his most perilous and painful period, his crucifixion and death. Of capturing the scenes of his religious work from long ago, Van Gogh described Delacroix's perspective of how to paint the historical religious figures: "Eug. Delacroix, when he did a Gethsemane, had been beforehand to see what an olive grove was like on the spot, and the same for the sea whipped up by a strong mistral, and because he must have said to himself, these people we know from history, doges of Venice, crusaders, apostles, holy women, were of the same type as, and lived in a similar way to, their present-day descendants."
Delacroix's
influence helped Van Gogh develop artistically and gain knowledge of color theory. To his brother Theo
, he wrote: "What I admire so much about Delacroix... is that he makes us feel the life of things, and the expression of movement, that he absolutely dominates his colours."
) was made by Van Gogh at Saint-Paul asylum
in Saint-Rémy
. This work like the reprises of Eugène Delacroix
and Rembrandt's works, evokes Van Gogh's sense of isolation, like an imprisoned or dying man. Although sad, there is a sense of comfort offered. In a letter to his brother, Theo, Van Gogh mentioned that he found making it and Men Drinking (after Daumier) quite difficult.
Following Van Gogh's funeral, Emile Bernard wrote of the studies around his coffin: "On the walls of the room where his body was laid out all his last canvases were hung making a sort of halo for him and the brilliance of the genius that radiated from them made this death even more painful for us artists who were there." Of the Doré reprise, he said, "Convicts walking in a circle surrounded by high prison walls, a canvas inspired by Doré of a terrifying ferocity and which is also symbolic of his end. Wasn't life like that for him, a high prison like this with such high walls - so high…and these people walking endlessly round this pit, weren't they the poor artists, the poor damned souls walking past under the whip of Destiny?"
wood block prints
. In Paris, Keisai Eisen's
print appeared on the May 1886 cover of "Paris Illustré" magazine which inspired Van Gogh to make The Courtesan. The magazine issue was entirely devoted to Japan
. Japanese author, Tadamasa Hayashi
, who lived in Paris, acquainted Parisians with information about Japan. In addition to providing information about its history, climate and visual arts, Hayashi explained what it was like to live in Japan, such as its customs, religion, education, religion, and the nature of its people
.
Van Gogh copied and enlarged the image. He created a bright yellow background and colorful kimono
. Influenced by other Japanese prints, he added a "watery landscape" of bamboo and water lilies. Frogs and cranes, terms used in 19th century France for prostitutes, with a distance boat adorn the border.
opened itself to trade, making Japanese art
available to the west. The works of Japanese print makers
, Hiroshige
and Hokusai
greatly influenced Van Gogh, both for the beautiful subject matter and the style of flat patterns of colors, without shadow. Van Gogh collected hundreds of Japanese prints
and likened the works of the great Japanese artists, like Hiroshige, to those of Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer
. Van Gogh explored the various influences, molding them into a style that was uniquely his own. The Japanese paintings represent Van Gogh's search for serenity, which he describes in a letter to his sister during this period, "Having as much of this serenity as possible, even though one knows little – nothing – for certain, is perhaps a better remedy for all diseases than all the things that are sold at the chemist's shop."
Hiroshige
, one of the last great masters of Ukiyo-e
, was well known for series of prints of famous Japanese landmarks.
, Van Gogh wrote to his sister that he no longer needed to dream of going to Japan, "because I am always telling myself that here I am in Japan."
" that greatly influenced Van Gogh began in the 1840s with the works of Jean-François Millet
, Jules Breton, and others. In 1885 Van Gogh described the painting of peasants as the most essential contribution to modern art
. He described the works of Millet and Breton of religious significance, "something on high." A common denominator in his favored authors and artists was sentimental treatment of the destitute and downtrodden. He held laborers up to a high standard of how dedicatedly he should approach painting, "One must undertake with confidence, with a certain assurance that one is doing a reasonable thing, like the farmer who drives his plow... (one who) drags the harrow
behind himself. If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse." Referring to painting of peasants Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo
: "How shall I ever manage to paint what I love so much?"
Van Gogh Museum says of Millet's influence on Van Gogh: "Millet's paintings, with their unprecedented depictions of peasants and their labors, mark a turning point in 19th-century art. Before Millet, peasant figures were just one of many elements in picturesque or nostalgic scenes. In Millet's work, individual men and women became heroic and real. Millet was the only major artist of the Barbizon School
who was not interested in 'pure' landscape painting."
Van Gogh made twenty-one paintings in Saint-Rémy that were "translations" of the work of Jean-François Millet
. Van Gogh did not intend for his works to be literal copies of the originals. Speaking specifically of the works after Millet, he explained, "it's not copying pure and simple that one would be doing. It is rather translating into another language, the one of colors, the impressions of chiaroscuro and white and black."
Theo wrote Van Gogh: "The copies after Millet are perhaps the best things you have done yet, and induce me to believe that on the day you turn to painting compositions of figures, we may look forward to great surprises."
It's not clear if Van Gogh was copying after particular Rembrandt works for his copies or the spirit of the figures he portrayed. Examples of Rembrandt's angels and Lazarus are here for illustrative purposes.
In Van Gogh's version of The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt) Christ is depicted symbolically through the sun to evoke the healing powers of faith. Christ is further referenced in two ways by the setting and circumstance. First, miraculously, he brought Lazarus back to life again. It also foretold Christ's own death and resurrection.
The painting includes the dead Lazarus and his two sisters. White, yellow and violet were used for Lazarus and the cave. One of the woman is in a vibrant green dress and orange hair. The other wears a striped green and pink gown and has black hair. Behind them is the countryside of blue and a bright yellow sun.
In The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt), van Gogh drastically trimmed the composition of Rembrandt's etching and eliminated the figure of Christ, thus focusing on Lazarus and his sisters. It is speculated that in their countenances may be detected the likenesses of the artist and his friends Augustine Rouline and Marie Ginoux. Van Gogh had just recovered from a lengthy episode of illness, and he may have identified with the miracle of the biblical resurrection, whose "personalities are the characters of my dreams."
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
between 1887 and early 1890. While at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Geography:...
, France where Van Gogh admitted himself, he strived to have subjects during the cold winter months. Seeking to be reinvigorated artistically, Van Gogh did more than 30 copies of works by some of his favorite artists. About twenty-one of the works were copies after, or inspired by Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
. Rather than replicate, Van Gogh sought to translate the subjects and composition through his perspective, color, and technique. Spiritual meaning and emotional comfort were expressed through symbolism and color. His brother Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
would call the pieces in the series some of his best work.
Background
During the winter months at Saint-Remy Van Gogh had a shortage of subjects for his work. Residing at Saint-Paul asylum, he did not have the freedom he enjoyed in the past, the whether was too cold to work outdoors and he did not have access to models for paintings. Van Gogh took up copying some of his favorite works of others, which became the primary source of his work during the winter months.The Pietà (after DelacroixEugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
) marks the start of an series of paintings that Van Gogh made after artists such as Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
, Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....
and Rembrandt. Millet's work, who greatly influenced Van Gogh, figures prominently in this series. He wrote to Theo about these copies: "I started making them inadvertently and now find that I can learn from them and that they give me a kind of comfort. My brush then moves through my fingers like a bow over the stings of a violin – completely for my pleasure."
Several religious works, such as The Pietà, were included in the series, notable exceptions in his oeuvre
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
. Saint-Paul asylum, housed in a old monastery, may have provided some of the inspiration for the specific subject. The nuns devoutness sometimes annoyed him, but he did find solace in religion. He wrote: "I am not indifferent, and pious thoughts often console me in my suffering."
Van Gogh Museum
Van Gogh Museum
The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:...
asserts that Van Gogh may have identified with Christ "who had also suffered and been misunderstood." They also offer the conjecture of some scholars of a resemblance between the Van Gogh and the red-bearded Christ in The Pietà and Lazarus
Lazarus of Bethany
Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death...
in the copy after Rembrandt. However it is unknown whether or not this was Van Gogh's intention.
Copy after Émile Bernard
Émile BernardÉmile Bernard
Émile Henri Bernard is known as a Post-Impressionist painter who had artistic friendships with Van Gogh, Gauguin and Eugene Boch, and at a later time, Cézanne. Most of his notable work was accomplished at a young age, in the years 1886 through 1897. He is also associated with Cloisonnism and...
, an artist and Catholic mystic
Christian mysticism
Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions...
, was a close personal friend to Van Gogh. Bernard influenced Van Gogh artistically several ways. Bernard outlined figures in black, replicating the look of religious woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
images of the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. This resulted in a flattened, more primitive work. Van Gogh's Crows over the Wheatfield is one example of how Bernard's simplified form influenced his work. Bernard also taught Van Gogh about how to manipulate perspective in his work. Just as Van Gogh used color to express emotion, he used distortion of perspective
Perspective projection distortion
Perspective projection distortion is the inevitable misrepresentation of three-dimensional space when drawn or "projected" onto a two-dimensional surface....
as a means of artistic expression and a vehicle to "modernize" his work.
As a demonstration of the sharing of artistic viewpoints, Van Gogh painted a copy in watercolor of a sketch made by Bernard of Breton woman
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
. Van Gogh wrote to Bernard of a utopian ideal where artists worked cooperatively, focused on a common idea, to reach heights artistically "beyond the power of the isolated individual." As a means of clarification, he stated that did not mean that several painters would work on the same picture, but they will each create a work that "nonetheless belong together and complement each other." The Breton Women is one of many examples of how Van Gogh and one of his friend's brought their unique temperaments and skills to a single idea.
Van Gogh wrote to Bernard his trade of the Breton Women to Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
: "Let me make it perfectly clear that I was looking forward to seeing the sort of things that are in that painting of yours which Gauguin has, those Breton
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...
women walking in a meadow so beautifully composed, the colour with such naive distinction." Gauguin made a work, Breton Women at a Pardon
Breton Women at a Pardon
Breton Women at a Pardon is an 1887 oil on canvas by the French academic painter Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret . It shows seven women sitting on grass in a churchyard waiting for a ceremony to begin...
which was may have been inspired by Bernard's work of Breton women.
Copy after Virginie Demont Breton
Van Gogh painted a work of the engraving Man at Sea made by Virginie Demont-Breton, daughter of Jules Breton. Her engraving was exhibited at the Salon of 1889. The picture depicts, almost entirely in shades of violet, a peaceful scene of a mother sitting by a fire with her baby on her lap.Copy after Honoré Daumier
In 1882 Van Gogh had remarked that he found Honoré Daumier'sHonoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....
The Four Ages of a Drinker both beautiful and soulful.
Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo of Daumier's artistic perspective and humanity: "What impressed me so much at the time was something so stout and manly in Daumier's conception, something that made me think It must be good to think and to feel like that and to overlook or ignore a multitude of things and to concentrate on what makes us sit up and think and what touches us as human beings more directly and personally than meadows or clouds." Daumier's artistic talents included painting, sculpting and creating lithographs. He was well known for his social and political commentary.
Van Gogh made Men Drinking after Daumier's work in Saint-Remy about February 1890.
Background
Van Gogh, motivated by the book The Imitation of Christ which included depiction of Christ as a suffering servant, worked on reprises of Eugène Delacroix'sEugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
Pieta and Good Samaritan. Rather than representing "a triumphant Christ in glory," he depicted Christ in his most perilous and painful period, his crucifixion and death. Of capturing the scenes of his religious work from long ago, Van Gogh described Delacroix's perspective of how to paint the historical religious figures: "Eug. Delacroix, when he did a Gethsemane, had been beforehand to see what an olive grove was like on the spot, and the same for the sea whipped up by a strong mistral, and because he must have said to himself, these people we know from history, doges of Venice, crusaders, apostles, holy women, were of the same type as, and lived in a similar way to, their present-day descendants."
Delacroix's
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
influence helped Van Gogh develop artistically and gain knowledge of color theory. To his brother Theo
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
, he wrote: "What I admire so much about Delacroix... is that he makes us feel the life of things, and the expression of movement, that he absolutely dominates his colours."
Table of paintings
| Van Gogh Image | Name and Details | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix) 1890 Kröller-Müller Museum Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum is an art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands.-Museum:... , Otterlo Otterlo Otterlo is a small village in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe.... , Netherlands (F630) |
In 1889 Van Gogh expressed a desire to make copies of paintings, including The Good Samaritan by Delacroix as a learning experience. | ||
.jpg) |
The Pietà (after Delacroix), first version 1889 Vatican Collection of Modern Religious Art Collection of Modern Religious Art, Vatican Museums The Collection of Modern Religious Art of the Vatican Museums is a collection of paintings, graphic art and sculptures... , Vatican City Vatican City Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of... (F757) |
Van Gogh made the Pietà paintings from a lithograph of Delacroix's painting. The subject and composition from the original remain, but Van Gogh brings his own style to the artwork. Of the Pietà, Van Gogh writes: "The Delacroix is a "Pietà" that is to say the dead Christ with the Mater Dolorosa Our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows , the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows , and Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names by which the Blessed Virgin Mary is referred to in relation to sorrows in her life... . The exhausted corpse lies on the ground in the entrance of a cave, the hands held before it on the left side, and the woman is behind it. It is in the evening after a thunderstorm, and that forlorn figure in blue clothes - the loose clothes are agitated by the wind - is sharply outlined against a sky in which violet clouds with golden edges are floating. She too stretches out her empty arms before her in a large gesture of despair, and one sees the good sturdy hands of a working woman. The shape of the figure with its streaming clothes is nearly as broad as it is high. And the face of the dead man is in the shadow - but the pale head of the woman stands out clearly against a cloud - a contrast which causes those two heads to seem like one somber-hued flower and one pale flower, arranged in such a way as mutually to intensify the effect." |
|
| The Pietà (after Delacroix) 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands (F630) |
The Van Gogh Museum relates how Van Gogh hastily began work on the Pietà: "The Delacroix lithograph La Pietà, as well as several others, fell into my oils and paints and was damaged. This upset me terribly, and I am now busy making a painting of it, as you will see." Although stained, the lithograph survived. | ||
Copy after Gustave Doré
Prisoners' Round (after Gustave DoréGustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
) was made by Van Gogh at Saint-Paul asylum
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (Van Gogh series)
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy is a collection of paintings that Vincent van Gogh did when he was a self-admitted patient at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy from May 1889 until May 1890...
in Saint-Rémy
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Geography:...
. This work like the reprises of Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
and Rembrandt's works, evokes Van Gogh's sense of isolation, like an imprisoned or dying man. Although sad, there is a sense of comfort offered. In a letter to his brother, Theo, Van Gogh mentioned that he found making it and Men Drinking (after Daumier) quite difficult.
Following Van Gogh's funeral, Emile Bernard wrote of the studies around his coffin: "On the walls of the room where his body was laid out all his last canvases were hung making a sort of halo for him and the brilliance of the genius that radiated from them made this death even more painful for us artists who were there." Of the Doré reprise, he said, "Convicts walking in a circle surrounded by high prison walls, a canvas inspired by Doré of a terrifying ferocity and which is also symbolic of his end. Wasn't life like that for him, a high prison like this with such high walls - so high…and these people walking endlessly round this pit, weren't they the poor artists, the poor damned souls walking past under the whip of Destiny?"
Copy after Keisai Eisen
While living in Antwerp Van Gogh become acquainted with JapaneseJapanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...
wood block prints
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
. In Paris, Keisai Eisen's
Keisai Eisen
Keisai Eisen was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who specialised in bijinga . His best works, including his ōkubi-e , are considered to be masterpieces of the "decadent" Bunsei Era...
print appeared on the May 1886 cover of "Paris Illustré" magazine which inspired Van Gogh to make The Courtesan. The magazine issue was entirely devoted to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Japanese author, Tadamasa Hayashi
Tadamasa Hayashi
was a Japanese art dealer who introduced traditional Japanese art such as ukiyo-e to Europe.Tadamasa was born to a family of Physician the Nagasaki family...
, who lived in Paris, acquainted Parisians with information about Japan. In addition to providing information about its history, climate and visual arts, Hayashi explained what it was like to live in Japan, such as its customs, religion, education, religion, and the nature of its people
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
.
Van Gogh copied and enlarged the image. He created a bright yellow background and colorful kimono
Kimono
The is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes...
. Influenced by other Japanese prints, he added a "watery landscape" of bamboo and water lilies. Frogs and cranes, terms used in 19th century France for prostitutes, with a distance boat adorn the border.
Copies after Utagawa Hiroshige
In the mid-19th century JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
opened itself to trade, making Japanese art
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...
available to the west. The works of Japanese print makers
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
, Hiroshige
Hiroshige
was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....
and Hokusai
Hokusai
was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...
greatly influenced Van Gogh, both for the beautiful subject matter and the style of flat patterns of colors, without shadow. Van Gogh collected hundreds of Japanese prints
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
and likened the works of the great Japanese artists, like Hiroshige, to those of Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer
Johannes Vermeer
Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime...
. Van Gogh explored the various influences, molding them into a style that was uniquely his own. The Japanese paintings represent Van Gogh's search for serenity, which he describes in a letter to his sister during this period, "Having as much of this serenity as possible, even though one knows little – nothing – for certain, is perhaps a better remedy for all diseases than all the things that are sold at the chemist's shop."
Hiroshige
Hiroshige
was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....
, one of the last great masters of Ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
, was well known for series of prints of famous Japanese landmarks.
Japonaiserie: Flowering Plum Tree (after Hiroshige)
The Flowering Plum Tree is believed to be the first of three oil paintings made by Van Gogh of Utagawa Hiroshige's Japanese woodblock prints. He used color to emulate the effect of the printer's ink, such as the red and greens in the background and the tint of green on the white blossoms. After her moved to ArlesArles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
, Van Gogh wrote to his sister that he no longer needed to dream of going to Japan, "because I am always telling myself that here I am in Japan."
Japonaiserie: Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige)
Utagawa Hiroshige's Evening Shower at Atake and the Great Bridge woodcut, which he had in his collection, inspired Van Gogh for its simplicity. The cloudburst, for instance, is conveyed by parallel lines. Such techniques were revered, but also difficult to execute when creating the wood block stamp for printing. By making a painting, Van Gogh's brushstrokes "softened the boldness of the Japanese woodcut." Calligraphic figures, borrowed from other Japanese prints, fill the border around the image. Rather than following the color patterns of the original woodcut print, he used bright colors or contrasting colors.Copy after Jacob Jordaens
Van Gogh used Jordaen's subject and composition for his rendition of Cows. A later artist, Edward Hopper, also used Jordaen's Cows as a source of inspiration for his work. The painting is located at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille in France.Copies after Jean-François Millet
Background
The "peasant genreGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
" that greatly influenced Van Gogh began in the 1840s with the works of Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
, Jules Breton, and others. In 1885 Van Gogh described the painting of peasants as the most essential contribution to modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
. He described the works of Millet and Breton of religious significance, "something on high." A common denominator in his favored authors and artists was sentimental treatment of the destitute and downtrodden. He held laborers up to a high standard of how dedicatedly he should approach painting, "One must undertake with confidence, with a certain assurance that one is doing a reasonable thing, like the farmer who drives his plow... (one who) drags the harrow
Harrow (tool)
In agriculture, a harrow is an implement for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. In this way it is distinct in its effect from the plough, which is used for deeper tillage. Harrowing is often carried out on fields to follow the rough finish left by ploughing operations...
behind himself. If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse." Referring to painting of peasants Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo
Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
Theodorus "Theo" van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the younger brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theo's unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting...
: "How shall I ever manage to paint what I love so much?"
Van Gogh Museum says of Millet's influence on Van Gogh: "Millet's paintings, with their unprecedented depictions of peasants and their labors, mark a turning point in 19th-century art. Before Millet, peasant figures were just one of many elements in picturesque or nostalgic scenes. In Millet's work, individual men and women became heroic and real. Millet was the only major artist of the Barbizon School
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
who was not interested in 'pure' landscape painting."
Van Gogh made twenty-one paintings in Saint-Rémy that were "translations" of the work of Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
. Van Gogh did not intend for his works to be literal copies of the originals. Speaking specifically of the works after Millet, he explained, "it's not copying pure and simple that one would be doing. It is rather translating into another language, the one of colors, the impressions of chiaroscuro and white and black."
Theo wrote Van Gogh: "The copies after Millet are perhaps the best things you have done yet, and induce me to believe that on the day you turn to painting compositions of figures, we may look forward to great surprises."
Table of paintings
| Millet Image | Van Gogh Image | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Morning: Going to Work ca. 1858-60 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Morning: Peasant Couple Going to Work 1890 Hermitage Museum Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,... , St. Petersberg, Russia (F684) |
Millet created a series of woodcuts entitled The Four Hours of the Day (1860). This idea is reportedly derived from the medieval Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern... "Book of Hours" that held that rural life was structured by the rhythms of God and nature. In this work, the man and woman walk to the fields, silhouetted by the morning sun. The simple composition depicts the harshness of their lives. Van Gogh said of Millet’s work, "they seem to have been painted with the very earth they were going to till." |
| Noon: Rest 1866 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
The Siesta or Noon - Rest from Work 1890 Musée d'Orsay Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,... , Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... , France (F686) |
While remaining true to Millet's composition, Van Gogh uses color to depict the peaceful nature of the mid-day rest. Use of contrasting colors, blue-violet against yellow-orange brings and intensity to the work that is uniquely his style. |
The End of the Day 1867-69 Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester |
Man in a Field or Evening, the End of the Day November 1889 Menard Art Museum, Komaki, Japan (F649) |
In this work the farmer ends his day against the background of an evening sky. Van Gogh painted vivid colors of yellow and violet in his unique pointillistic style. While he brands the work with his own style, he remains true to Millet's composition. |
| Night 1867 Fine Arts Museum, Boston |
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The work depicts happy life of a rural family: father, mother and child. Here the image seems bathed in yellow light like that of the Holy Family Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph.The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Roman Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family... . A lamp casts long shadows of many colors on the floor of the humble cottage. The painting includes soft shades of green and purple. The work was based on a print by Millet from his series, the four times of day. |
| First Steps ca. 1858 Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi |
First Steps 1890 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (F668) |
Van Gogh used a photograph of the original painting for this work. Rather than vibrant colors, here he used softer shades of yellow, green and blue. The picture depicts the father, having put down his tools, holding his arms outstretched for his child's first steps. The mother protectively guides the child's movement. |
_013.jpg) 1850 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
The Sower 1889 Niarchos Collection, Zurich (F690) |
Having made over 30 works of the sower, Van Gogh explored the symbolism of sowing: "One does not expect to get from life what one has already learned it cannot give; rather, one begins to see more clearly that life is a kind of sowing time, and the harvest is not yet here." As the sower cast seeds, another farmer is seen in a nearby field ploughing the field. Van Gogh depicted the sower in "its simplest form" and with the colors of blue, red, yellow, purple and orange, giving life and meaning to the composition of the eternal cycles of life. |
1850 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
The Sower 1889 Kroller-Muller Museum (F689) |
Van Gogh's appreciation for Millet's work stemmed from the soulfulness he brought to the works, specifically honoring peasants' agricultural role. Plowing, sowing, and harvesting were seen by Van Gogh as symbols for man's command of nature and its eternal cycles of life. Kay Larson of "New York Magazine" wrote of Millet's work: The Sower, who strides like an elemental force of nature across the cold, newly broken earth, is such an icon that Simon and Schuster uses it as a logo." |
| The Reaper 1889 Private Collection (F688) |
In man's mastery of the cycles of nature: "the sower and the wheat sheaf stood for eternity, and the reaper and his scythe Scythe A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe... for irrevocable death." Of the reaper Van Gogh expressed his symbolic, spiritual view of those who worked close to nature in a letter to his sister in 1889: "aren’t we, who live on bread, to a considerable extent like wheat, at least aren't we forced to submit to growing like a plant without the power to move, by which I mean in whatever way our imagination impels us, and to being reaped when we are ripe, like the same wheat?" Van Gogh spoke of the symbolic meaning of the reaper: "For I see in this reaper — a vague figure fighting like a devil in the midst of the heat to get to the end of his task — I see in him the image of death, in the sense that humanity might be the wheat he is reaping. So it is — if you like — the opposite of that sower I tried to do before. But there is nothing sad in this death, it goes its way in broad daylight with sun flooding everything with a light of pure gold." |
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The Reaper with a Sickle 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam, Netherlands (F687) |
Of making this painting, and others of Millet's Work in the Field series, Van Gogh mentioned that absent models, he was pleased to have seven of the ten in the series completed. | |
| Peasant Woman with a Rake 1889 Private collection (F698) |
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| Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... (F700) |
In Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves (after Millet) Van Gogh's work shows is beautiful for its simplicity and appreciation of nature. The woman's expression is hidden to us and appears like one of the waiting bundles of wheat. The true focus of the scene is the woman's bent back. | |
| The Sheaf-Binder 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands (F693) |
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| Peasant Woman Cutting Straw 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam (F697) |
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| The Thresher 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands (F692) |
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| Two Men Turning Over the Soil 1866 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Two Peasants Digging 1889 The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (F648) |
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| The Woodcutter ca. 1853 Musee du Louvre, Paris |
The Woodcutter 1890 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam (F670) |
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| Shearing Sheep ca. 1852-53 Museum of Fine Art, Boston |
The Sheep-Shearers 1889 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands (F634) |
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| Shepherdess c. 1848-49 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
The Shepherdess 1889 Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (F699) |
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| Woman Spinning 1889 Collection Sara and Moshe Mayer, Geneva, Switzerland (F696) |
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| Winter: The Plain of Chailly 1862 Osterreichische Gallerie, Vienna |
Snow covered Field with a Harrow or Plough and the Harrow January, 1890 Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:... , Amsterdam Amsterdam Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population... , Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... (F632) |
Van Gogh used Millet's work, and Alfred Delaunay's etching of Millet's work, as inspiration for this painting. In Van Gogh's version he added black crows and made the winter scene more bleak, deserted and cold. His choice of color, composition and brushstroke make this work uniquely his own. |
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Two Peasant Women Digging in the Snow April, 1890 Foundation E.G. Bührle, Zurich Zürich Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich... , Switzerland (F695) |
Van Gogh used the women from Millet's The Gleaners as inspiration for this painting of women digging in the frozen snow. Unlike the others, this work is not a literal translation of the original painting. The setting sun casts a warm glow over the fields of snow. The cool colors of the field contrast to the red in the sun and sky. |
Copies after Rembrandt
From Rembrandt Van Gogh learned how to paint light into darkness. Rembrandt’s influence seemed present one evening in 1877 when Van Gogh walked through Amsterdam. He wrote: "the ground was dark, the sky still lit by the glow of the sun, already gone down, the row of houses and towers standing out above, the lights in the windows everywhere, everything reflected in the water." Van Gogh found Rembrandt particularly adept at his observation of nature and expressing emotion with great tenderness.It's not clear if Van Gogh was copying after particular Rembrandt works for his copies or the spirit of the figures he portrayed. Examples of Rembrandt's angels and Lazarus are here for illustrative purposes.
In Van Gogh's version of The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt) Christ is depicted symbolically through the sun to evoke the healing powers of faith. Christ is further referenced in two ways by the setting and circumstance. First, miraculously, he brought Lazarus back to life again. It also foretold Christ's own death and resurrection.
The painting includes the dead Lazarus and his two sisters. White, yellow and violet were used for Lazarus and the cave. One of the woman is in a vibrant green dress and orange hair. The other wears a striped green and pink gown and has black hair. Behind them is the countryside of blue and a bright yellow sun.
In The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt), van Gogh drastically trimmed the composition of Rembrandt's etching and eliminated the figure of Christ, thus focusing on Lazarus and his sisters. It is speculated that in their countenances may be detected the likenesses of the artist and his friends Augustine Rouline and Marie Ginoux. Van Gogh had just recovered from a lengthy episode of illness, and he may have identified with the miracle of the biblical resurrection, whose "personalities are the characters of my dreams."