Musée d’Orsay · 1890
The siesta (after Millet)
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh painted this quiet scene of two farm workers resting at midday as his own colorful "translation" of a black-and-white print by the artist he admired most, Jean-François Millet — using color, he said, the way Millet had used light and shadow.
Why it matters
Van Gogh painted this quiet scene of two farm workers resting at midday as his own colorful "translation" of a black-and-white print by the artist he admired most, Jean-François Millet — using color, he said, the way Millet had used light and shadow.
Look closer
Notice the intense heat suggested by the golden haystacks and the deep blue shade the couple rests in — Van Gogh turns a simple nap into a study of how color itself can feel like temperature.
Van Gogh made this and several other paintings as direct "translations" of Millet's prints, treating another artist's black-and-white composition as a script to reinterpret entirely in his own vivid palette.
Value context
ELYIO places this work in an indicative editorial context of €20–38 million.
The museum work is not for sale. This is ELYIO indicative context—not an appraisal, insurance value or offer.