Millet represented a crucial reference for Van Gogh’s painting, to such an extent that several artworks made by Millet were copied and transformed by Van Gogh, who considered him a sort of “spiritual father”. He was discovered at the exhibition of Millet's artworks held after his death, in which much of what remained in his atelier was alienated. Van Gogh discovered in Millet a love for simple life, countryside’s rhythm and a rejection of the bursting modernity that was grinding on. He started to surround himself with Millet's reproductions and prints to draw inspiration for themes and compositions, in order to overcome a sort of worrying awkwardness in drawing. In addition to Millet, Van Gogh loved Daubigny’s painting, being the latter one of the masters of the Ecole de Barbizon, whom he frequented and whose prints and etchings he purchased, using them as samples. His friendship with Daubigny, together with the respect he had for him, are specially evidenced by two famous paintings whose subject is the Garden of the Daubigny House, one of which Van Gogh, before his death, wanted to bequeath to the master's widow, even if it was not possible due to the death of his brother Théo and Daubigny's wife. After several ups and downs, one of the paintings ended up in the collection of the legendary merchant Ambroise Vollard. In March 1880, Van Gogh decided to visit Jules Breton, an artist whom he loved unconditionally; after learning that Breton lived in a small village not so far from the Pas-de Calais, he set out upon a journey on foot, crossing the countryside and avoiding villages. It was a long and hard journey. He had no money, and had to manage on his own to survive. It was like a sort of initiation into the loneliness that would not leave him for much of his life. After the long journey, he finally reached Jules Breton's doorstep, but he did not have the courage to come forward, so decided to leave without meeting Breton.