After Van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the Saint Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy, France in 1889 he would continue to work sporadically, depending on the state of his physical and mental well-being. In late 1889 Van Gogh focused his attention on copies of several of Millet's works, in part because of his lack of models during his confinement.

In October, 1889 Van Gogh wrote to his brother of his admiration for one specific Millet drawing:

Ah, now certainly you are yourself deep in nature, since you say that Jo already feels her child move--it is much more interesting even than landscapes, and I am very glad that things should have changed so for you.

How beautiful that Millet is, “A Child's First Steps"!

Letter 611
Saint-Rémy
c. 25 October 1889

So while Van Gogh was envisioning a series of copies of Millet's works, it's arguable that First Steps had a special significance to Vincent at the time because of the upcoming birth of his nephew to his brother Theo and sister-in-law Johanna.

Millet's original First Steps

Just as Van Gogh was greatly influenced by Jean-François Millet, so too was Millet influenced by those before him. Scenes of children learning to walk were depicted by Rembrandt as well as his pupils. Millet may also have been influenced by 15th century artists who painted the infant Jesus taking his first steps toward Mary. Millet wrote to his biographer Alfred Sensier "I shall make drawings, that is briefly the present solution. I shall make them as good as I can and, as far as possible, place them in the intimacy of life." Millet was passionate that his artworks should focus on every day scenes, which is arguably why Millet's works spoke so profoundly to Vincent van Gogh.

Millet would produce three copies of First Steps:

• The first version was completed in 1858 for Millet's patron Alfred Feydeau. It measures 32 x 43 cm. and is now in the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Lauren, Mississippi. Theo sent a photograph of this version of First Steps to Vincent in October, 1889. Three months later Van Gogh would draw a squared grid on the photograph (now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam) and commence his painted copy of the work.

• The second version was commissioned by Alfred Sensier and is larger than the first (63 x 75 cm.). At Sensier's suggestion, Millet added some pastel to make the work more lively. This version is now in a private collection in Germany.

• A third version was acquired by Émile Gavet around 1859 and Van Gogh would have seen it on display at the Gavet Sale in Paris in 1875. It is now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. So even though Van Gogh didn't begin his copies after Millet until a few months before his death in 1890, he was writing to Theo about his admiration for Millet as early as 1873 and would have seen in person a version of Millet's First Steps fifteen years before undertaking his own interpretation of the work.

Van Gogh's First Steps

Van Gogh completed his version of Millet's work in January-February, 1890. He sent this and the other painted copies of Millet to Theo in Paris on 29 April 1890. Theo received these works with great enthusiasm:

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.

Letter T33
Paris
3 May 1890

First Steps remains one of Van Gogh's most admired works. The intimate family scene has a universal appeal and the harmonious colour scheme would be typical of Van Gogh's final paintings. The subject of Millet's original and Van Gogh's copy may have spoken to Vincent on several levels: a passionate admiration for the great master Jean-François Millet, delight at the prospect of the impending birth of his brother's son, and perhaps a sense of regret for a family life that Vincent had long hoped for, but never attained.

I should very much like to see Millet reproductions in the schools. I think there are children who would become painters if only they saw such good things.

Letter 607
Saint-Rémy
19 September 1889

1. Ronald Pickvance, Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986), pp. 172-73.

2. Wulf Herzogenrath and Dorothee Hansen (eds.), Van Gogh: Fields (Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2002), pp. 106-07.