Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but for Vincent van Gogh, it was a means of self education for the artist in the 1880s, who copied numerous works by Jean-François Millet to teach himself how to draw and paint. The visual dialogue that ensued between master and student is the focus of “Visiting Masterpieces,” an ongoing series at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), which showcases great art from museums and private collections around the world within the context of the MFA’s collection. To inaugurate the series, the museum welcomes van Gogh’s “The Sower,” 1888, on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, to Boston for juxtaposition with the work that inspired it, Millet’s “The Sower,” 1850, one of the MFA’s celebrated masterpieces. The paintings, which have never been seen together in Boston, are currently on view to August 8 in the Impressionist Gallery.
This special installation presents two very different interpretations of a farmer sowing seeds in the fields of France painted by Millet and van Gogh. It also features three masterpieces by van Gogh from the MFA’s collection, created during the artist’s sojourn to Provence in southern France from spring 1888 until late spring 1890. These include “Postman Joseph Roulin,” 1888, and “Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse),” 1888‸9, paintings of van Gogh’s close friends in the rural town of Arles, as well as “Ravine,” 1889, a landscape he painted shortly after his arrival in the environs of an asylum in the town of Saint-Rémy, where he spent most of the last year of his life (recent collaborative research by conservators and curators has revealed the presence of a lost painting beneath the canvas).
Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853‱890) became familiar with works by Frenchman Jean-François Millet (1814‱875) in 1875, the year Millet died. At that time, van Gogh was in the employ of the Parisian art dealership Goupil & Cie, which organized a major sales exhibition of Millet’s pastels and drawings from the collection of his patron, Emile Gavet (many of these eventually came into the collection of Bostonian Quincy Adams Shaw, who bequeathed them to the MFA through his heirs). Six years later, van Gogh began to discover himself as an artist, drawing inspiration from Millet, of whom he said: “Millet is father Millet, counselor and mentor in everything for young artists.”
Van Gogh poured over the biography of Millet written by the artist’s supporter, Alfred Sensier, published in Paris and Boston in 1881. He also collected prints by or after works by Millet, as well as photographs, copying them extensively as part of his self-taught study of the rules of drawing. (His first copy after Millet dates to 1881; later, he copied works by other renowned artists as well, including Rembrandt, Delacroix and Daumier.) Van Gogh saw pastels of Millet’s “The Sower,” as well as photographs of the oil and prints, but never the painting itself †which left France for Boston in 1855. He made more than 13 variations (excluding sketches) of Millet’s iconic work, among them several paintings.
When seen side-by-side, interesting comparisons can be made between Millet’s sower (measuring approximately 40 by 33 inches) and van Gogh’s (approximately 13 by 16 inches). On Millet’s dramatic canvas, the powerful figure of the worker fills most of the frame, his cloth bag slung over his shoulder as he scatters the seeds while walking with a determined gait. The landscape and the sower appear in shadows, with highlights only on the man’s sinewy legs and on the farmer driving a harrow pulled by oxen on the distant horizon. In contrast, van Gogh’s vibrant painting places the sower at the lower left quadrant of the canvas, which is divided by the trunk of a flowering tree, angled toward the large, shining yellow disk of the sun, evoking the Japanese imagery that van Gogh had discovered and collected in Paris. While inspired spiritually by Millet’s iconic painting, considered shocking in its day, this version by van Gogh is another radical interpretation of the theme.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is at 465 Huntington Avenue. For information, www.mfa.org or 617-267-9300.
