Few paintings by Vincent van Gogh are direct copies of other artists, but The Good Samaritan stands as a vivid exception: it is a reinterpretation of a work by Eugène Delacroix, whose art Van Gogh admired passionately. In the spring of 1890, during his stay at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about copying Delacroix’s The Good Samaritan, describing the process as a way to "find comfort and courage." This act of homage was not mere imitation; Van Gogh believed that by translating Delacroix’s colors and forms into his own brushwork, he could better understand both the story and himself. At the heart of the painting is the biblical parable from the Gospel of Luke: a wounded traveler, beaten and left for dead, is rescued not by a priest or a Levite, but by a Samaritan—an outsider. Van Gogh chooses the precise moment when the Samaritan, stooping with effort, lifts the injured man onto his horse.

The swirling, urgent brushstrokes animate the scene: the Samaritan’s blue coat contrasts with the ochre earth, while the battered man’s limp body is cradled with a gentleness that echoes Van Gogh’s own empathy for the suffering. Unlike Delacroix’s more classical composition, Van Gogh’s version pulses with movement, the figures nearly dissolving into the landscape—a testament to his emotional investment in the story’s message of compassion. The painting’s physical history is less dramatic than its subject. Created in May 1890, only months before Van Gogh’s death, it was one of several copies he made after admired masters during his time in Saint-Rémy.

Unlike many of his works, The Good Samaritan was not painted for a patron or exhibition, but as a private exercise and solace. Today, it is held in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands, where it is recognized as a poignant example of Van Gogh’s late style and his dialogue with the art he loved. This work stands as a bridge between Van Gogh’s own turbulent life and the enduring power of kindness depicted in the parable.