Le Tondeur de moutons (d'après Millet)

Van Gogh painted this in September 1889 inside the asylum at Saint-Rémy, where he had committed himself after the breakdown that cost him part of his ear. He could not always go outdoors to paint, so he copied. Theo sent him black-and-white prints after Jean-François Millet, the painter of peasants he revered, and Vincent worked them up in colours of his own invention. Here a woman shears a sheep. He told Theo he had built the whole thing on a scale running from lilac to yellow. He made about 20 of these Millet copies during his months in the clinic, a way to keep his hand steady and his mind occupied when he could not face the open fields. The drawing is Millet's. The lilacs and yellows are entirely Van Gogh's own.