Moulin à eau à Gennep

By November 1884 Vincent was 31, still living in his parents' parsonage at Nuenen and painting the dark brown world of Dutch peasants, years before Paris had heard of him. Several old water mills stood within walking distance of that house, and he worked from them all through that year. For this one he set up outdoors in the cold and stretched a canvas nearly a metre and a half wide, by far the largest of the group. Look at the churning wheels and you can catch him loosening his hand, laying separate touches of brighter paint instead of one even brown. He painted the whole thing outdoors in that cold month, which for a picture this size was no small undertaking.