The Sheepshearer (after Millet)
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, September 1889
oil on canvas, 43.6 cm x 29.5 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh painted this woman shearing sheep ‘in a colour scale ranging from lilac to yellow’. He said so in a letter he wrote to his brother Theo from the psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rémy where he was an inmate. Vincent regained his self-confidence by copying works by other painters. He worked from black-and-white prints, copying the images fairly accurately but choosing the colours himself.
He based this painting on a small wood engraving. It was part of Travaux des champs (‘Work in the Fields’), a ten-part series of prints based on paintings by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). Vincent wrote, ‘not having any models for the moment it will ensure […] that I don’t lose sight of the figure.’
- F-number
- F0634
- JH-number
- JH1787
- Object number
- s0042V1962
- Dimensions
- 43.6 cm x 29.5 cm, 57.8 cm x 44 cm, 6.9 cm
- Provenance
- Probably sent by the artist from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence to his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, at the end of April 1890; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, since 22 October 1931; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh’s Home: the Van Gogh Museum. The Painter's Legacy, the Family Collection, the Ongoing Story, 5 July-31 August 2025
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Vincent van Gogh, 14 September-1 December 1945, no. geen catnr. / no cat. no.
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__, p. 73, 107-109, 112, 118-122, 124-125, 128, 185, 190, 195, 242, 262
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Arts begets art : eight engravings by Millet transformed by Vincent van Gogh, p. 28
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Het textielambacht in de schilderkunst van de 16e tot de 20e eeuw, Tilburg, [1963], [unpaged]
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