Horse

Horses occupied a minor but consistent place in Van Gogh's visual world from his earliest drawings through his Paris period, and this 1886 study at the Van Gogh Museum was most likely made from observation at one of Paris's livery stables, abattoirs, or markets where working horses were accessible. He had been drawing and painting draught horses in Brabant and The Hague since his earliest training — heavy Belgian draught animals that he associated with the working-class subjects of his peasant studies — and the Paris horse continues that tradition while absorbing the lighter palette of his developing Impressionist approach. He admired Meisonier's equestrian paintings and Géricault's horses for their combination of anatomical precision with visual energy; his own approach was less technically rigorous but more instinctively expressive. The cardboard support suggests this was a rapid study rather than a considered composition. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

The horse's form is rendered in summary strokes that establish its mass and posture without detailed anatomical elaboration. The palette is already lighter than his Dutch animal studies, with warm chestnut tones set against a neutral ground in a manner that shows Impressionist influence without yet fully embracing their broken-color approach.