"The series Les Travaux des Champs comprises ten drawings by Millet which the artist created in 1852 for publication in L'Illustration. They appeared engraved in wood by Jacques Adrien Lavieille, as fairly random illustrations with the article entitled 'Revue Agricole' by a certain Saint-Germain-Leduc in the issue of 5 February 1853. They were sent to Van Gogh in Brussels in October 1880 by his brother Theo. In order to learn the most elementary rules of drawing but also as a practice in the peasant genre, Van Gogh regarded Millet's portrayals of rural life as excellent study material. His decision to draw peasant labourers was more or less confirmed definitively by Millet's series and the many studies of a number of figures in the fields are very close to the Travaux des Champ's in character." (Exh. cat. Van Gogh & Millet, op.cit. p. 22)
The subject matter of the present drawing "A farmer chopping wood" is definitely inspired by Millet's example, although it is not a direct copy. Later in his career in 1889 Van Gogh once more copied Millet's Travaux des Champs but now in paint

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