The Sower (after Millet)

Van Gogh's copies after Millet, made at Saint-Rémy in 1889-90, were not mere exercises but acts of creative interpretation — translations into his own chromatic and painterly language of images that had shaped his entire artistic vision. The Sower was Millet's most iconic image, and Van Gogh's version transforms the monumental peasant figure from black-and-white engraving source into a richly colored, energetically painted canvas. Van Gogh saw Millet as a father figure of social-realist painting, and these copies were a way of maintaining connection with that tradition during the months of asylum confinement. The Kröller-Müller Museum holds several of these Millet interpretations.

Van Gogh's version of the Sower is a chromatic transformation: the black-and-white engraving source becomes a painting of vivid yellows, oranges, and blues, the laboring figure silhouetted against a glowing landscape. His brushwork animates every surface with its characteristic energy, and the Millet composition is retained while the emotional temperature rises dramatically.