In Saint-Rémy, van Gogh became interested in making copies in oil paint of prints by or after the works of those artists who represented for him the pantheon of modern art - Millet, Delacroix and Rembrandt, and Daumier, Doré and the illustrators. He explained these copies in many ways. At one level, in the absence of models, he used them to practice his figure drawing and painting. At another level, he stated that by painting them in colour he was attempting to bring these artists, and what they stood for, before the public once again. This also enabled him to update them by demonstrating what he identified as his contribution to the tradition of modern art - colour.

For the copies, van Gogh used prints from the collection he and his brother had made. In fact van Gogh's paintings were not copies, rather these works were paintings in their own right.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Reaper with Sickle (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 45 x 34 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 45 x 34 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	Pietà (after Delacroix) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 74 x 62 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	The Spinner (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 40 x 26 cm Private collection
	The Reaper (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 44 x 25 cm Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester
	The Thresher (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 44 x 28 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	The Sheaf-Binder (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 45 x 32 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	The Sheep-Shearers (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 44 x 30 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	Peasant Woman Cutting Straw (after Millet) September 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 41 x 27 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	Two Peasants Digging (after Millet) October 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 72 x 92 cm Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
	The Sower (after Millet) October-November 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 64 x 55 cm Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo
	The Sower (after Millet) October 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 81 x 66 cm Private collection
	The Shepherdess (after Millet) November 1889, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 53 x 41 cm Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv
	Morning: Peasant Couple Going to Work (after Millet) January 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
	First Steps (after Millet) January 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 72 x 91 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
	Noon: Rest from Work (after Millet) January 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 73 x 91 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris
	Prisoners Exercising (after Doré) February 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 80 x 64 cm Pushkin Museum, Moscow
	The Drinkers (after Daumier) February 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 59 x 73 cm Art Institute, Chicago
	The Woodcutter (after Millet) February 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 44 x 25 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
	The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix) May 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo
	The Raising of Lazarus (after Rembrandt) May 1890, Saint-Rémy Oil on canvas, 49 x 63 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam