Prisoners Exercising

Prisoners Exercising, 1890

by Vincent van Gogh

Oil on canvas

Prisoners Exercising was actually made after a print of Newgate Prison in London by Doré, whose work van Gogh had admired for some years. Van Gogh had begun to collect graphic illustrations from magazines in the early 1880s, and added prints of Doumier, Paul Gavami (1804-66) and Doré

to his collection. He then referred to these works in later years (as well as multiple prints of Millet's paintings), often making several copies of a single image. The prints were in black and white, so van Gogh improvised with the colour, and gave the paintings his own visual interpretation.