1889: the year of copies

The record dates Reaper with Sickle (after Millet) to 1889, and the title carries its own declaration: this is a painted version after a work by Jean-François Millet. Seventeen canvases in this catalogue carry Millet's name in the title: thirteen dated 1889 and four dated 1890. Nothing dated 1888 or earlier does. The habit belongs to the last two years.

What the record gives

The canvas is 44 x 33 cm, one of the smaller works of the year, and it is held by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The measured palette resolves to yellow.

Copying, twice in ten years

Working after another artist appears twice in this chronology and nowhere else. The first instance is Japonaiserie Oiran (after Kesai Eisen), dated 1887, in Paris. The second is the run of thirteen Millets dated 1889, four more dated 1890, and works after Rembrandt, Delacroix and Daumier dated 1889 and 1890. Two clusters, two years, with the whole Arles period between them. The record supports the pattern without requiring any account of why it happened, and none is offered here.