The exhibit itself changes with this move. Inspired by Jean-Franois Millet, van Gogh became convinced that the peasantry was the true subject for modern art. Study after study, in dark earth tones, reveals van Gogh's desire to capture the humility and spirit of the common worker. Particularly impressive is the exhibit's collection of van Gogh's studies for his first masterpiece, 'The Potato Eaters' (1885), the final version of which is not included in the show. Van Gogh was upset with the reception of this painting, moved briefly to Antwerp, where his brother Theo introduced him to Delacroix's color theory, and then landed in Paris.

Everything brightens as the exhibit moves to the Paris and Arles years of the late 1880s. Even the walls of the museum change from somber blue to yellow, van Gogh's favorite color. In Paris, van Gogh was busy but poor, so he often used himself as a model. Seven of his self-portraits appear in the exhibit, more than have ever been seen together before.

Van Gogh's brushstrokes reveal his interest in Impressionism and Pointillism, as well as the influence of his friends Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and Seurat. The portraits are hung close together to underscore how small changes in technique and pose can make an image completely different. The sea greens, seen later in van Gogh's flower paintings, make their first appearance here.

When van Gogh leaves Paris for Arles, the mood shifts yet again, to pink and yellow hues and intense color. In Arles, the Roulin family - Joseph Roulin, postal worker, his wife Augustine, and their three children, all friends of van Gogh - becomes his primary subject. This is the largest collection of the Roulin family portraits ever seen together - 17 in total, including seven different versions of 'The Postman Joseph Roulin.' Granted, the exhibit was conceived in part because the Detroit Institute of Arts wanted to show off one newly acquired version, but the museum-goer gets a little lost in the mass of paintings of this family.

Each painting shows van Gogh's desire to experiment with color and pose to convey emotion. About this series, van Gogh wrote, 'if I manage to do this whole family better still, at least I shall have done something to my liking and something individual.' The placement of two different versions of a portrait of Augustine and the different versions of 'The Postman Joseph Roulin' make clear van Gogh's desire to see how background affects mood, reflecting an artist at play and alive.

Easy to overlook in this section of the exhibit, due to the focus on the Roulin family, are two subjects unusual for van Gogh, 'Italian Woman' (1888?) and 'The Zouave' (1888), which offer a different side of the artist from his portraits of weavers and peasants.