Theo and Vincent van Gogh’s apartment in Paris
Where did van Gogh live in Montmartre ?
Vincent van Gogh lived with his art dealer brother Theo from 1886 to 1888 at 54 Rue Lepic in Montmartre. The apartment was on the third floor. Vincent’s Paris years are seen as critical for his artistic development as he progressed from a dark palette to a vivid one.
Vincent comes to stay with Theo in Paris
On the circuit turn around from the optional point 11 Cité des Fusains on Rue Tourlaque and head all the way back uphill. It is a steep climb. Take care at the road crossings. You now are at the junction of Rue Tourlaque and Rue Lepic. Turn right into Rue Lepic and again you will be heading downhill. Rue Lepic now starts to slowly bend to the left. The next site is point 12, 54 Rue Lepic, the home of Theo and Vincent van Gogh.
Theo van Gogh was an established art dealer in Paris
Theo van Gogh was an art dealer established in Paris. Paris at this time was the centre of the artistic world. Vincent van Gogh took advantage of Theo’s presence in Paris to meet artists, absorb ideas and advance his career. The brothers shared the apartment on the third floor from where Vincent painted the view looking west.
Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec
Van Gogh attended classes led by Fernand Cormon where he met Toulouse-Lautrec who was studying there. The two became friends. Whilst he found the lessons he received here useful, he left the Cormon school realising he must
develop his own style.
The two became friends. Cormon’s school was at 104 Boulevard de Clichy. Whilst he found the lessons he received here useful, he left the Cormon school realising he must develop his own style.
Toulouse-Lautrec painted a portrait of his intense friend in a café around 1887.
Paris changes Vincent van Gogh
We can observe van Gogh’s changing style through the paintings he produced during his Paris years. It was in 1886 that he painted a murky view of Le Moulin de la Galette. He also started on a series of self portraits.
Vincent was open to influence and keen to learn. He met Monet, Pissarro and Gauguin. He visited galleries and museums, especially The Louvre. Commercially his time in Paris was a flop. What he absorbed during his stay however was to bear fruit in the years to come.
Admires and collects Japanese prints
Japanese prints were very influential in artistic circles in Paris. Vincent and Theo both collected Japanese prints and admired their graphic style. Paris was in the grip of a Japanese fad with the sudden opening of the Japanese economy to the in 1859. Their influence on Vincent him and his fellow class-mates Emile Bernard and especially Toulouse-Lautrec was important.
It was during his two year stay that, with his brother, he started to seriously collect Japanese prints. Their influence on him and his fellow students Emile Bernard and especially Toulouse-Lautrec was important. According to the van Gogh Museum the principle stylistic influences with their origin in Japanese prints were:
- an uncluttered empty middle ground in the painting
- enlarged foreground subjects so traditional rules of perspective eroded
- cropping bringing the principle subject into dynamic focus
- no horizon
- expanses of colour and flatness, “delineated by bold contours”
Impressionism
We can clearly see the influence of the Impressionists in his painting of the allotments behind the Moulin de La Galette from 1887, where the areas of fresh colour indicating the spring growth are dabbed and lightly applied with short strokes.
Vincent van Gogh’s wintry Boulevard de Clichy from 1887 whilst suggesting the greyness of winter still articulates houses, street, and figures with yellows, blues, oranges and greens. It is as though he wished to indicate the life of the street was beating below the grey sky, in spite of the gloomy wintry weather.
Vincent could not resist imposing vitality and colour even in the most unpromising of views and light conditions. This painting is a good example of van Gogh’s palette lightening up, whilst building up the image from juxtaposed contrasting dashes and points of colour.
The painting shows the influence of the pointillist technique of the Neo-Impressionist Paul Signac whom Vincent also met. Signac had himself painted the Boulevard de Clichy, using pointillism, in the snow one year earlier in 1886.
Vincent van Gogh leaves Paris
Vincent Van Gogh left Paris for Arles in 1888, drawn south by the light. In the South of France his style took off. What he had absorbed in Paris came bursting into life thanks to the inspiration of the Provençal landscape and light.
Just how quickly and brilliantly he developed can be seen in the Orsay museum in Paris with, for example, his Self Portrait of 1889 painted in the asylum of Saint-Remy-de-Provence, where he voluntarily admitted himself, or his Starry Night Over the Rhône also in the Orsay.
Van Gogh paints the rhythms of nature
His Starry Night Over the Rhône suggests a reflection on the brevity of human life as compared to the infinity of the universe and nature. Life is represented by the couple and the reflection of the city lights on the water, the universe and nature by the boundless, timeless, spectacle of the stars in the quiet night sky and the slow flow of the river.
Vincent’s confidant
Much of what is known about Vincent van Gogh comes from his letters to Theo. The period when the two shared an apartment in Paris is the only one in Vincent’s life when the correspondence with his faithful brother stopped.