The Woodcutter (after Millet)

The Woodcutter (after Millet) was executed in September 1889 at Saint-Rémy, part of Van Gogh's sustained engagement with Millet's imagery of agricultural and woodland labour. Woodcutting — the physical work of splitting logs with an axe — was among the most ancient images of human labour in the European tradition, and Millet had treated it with monumental gravity. Van Gogh's translation brings the same physical presence to the subject while embedding it in the chromatic language he had developed during his southern French years. The Van Gogh Museum preserves this work alongside many others from the Saint-Rémy series.

The raised axe and splitting motion suggest a frozen moment of maximum physical effort. Van Gogh captures this kinetic quality through the directional energy of his brushwork — marks that reinforce the sense of force and movement inherent in the woodcutter's suspended gesture.