How Winter in Arles Changed Van Gogh’s Use of Color

“Under the blue sky, the orange, yellow, red patches of flowers take on an amazing brilliance, and in the limpid air there’s something happier and more suggestive of love than in the north.” These evocative words were written by Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo in spring of 1888 as he attempted to put into words the wonders of the vibrant atmosphere of southern France.

Having arrived in the city earlier that winter, van Gogh had since dedicated his time to his art. Capturing his surroundings with a childlike wonder and enthusiasm, van Gogh would enjoy some of the most productive years of his career while in Provence at Arles. While his stay there would be brief, the result of his time spent in his Studio of the South was a radical transformation in his use of colour.

Join us as we journey back to this pivotal period in van Gogh’s short yet spectacular career to examine the colouristic evolution that emerged. As we meander between the brushstrokes  and complementary colours of some of his most celebrated works we can momentarily tap into the colourful wonder of van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist perspective.

Revolution on the Rise: Van Gogh Before Arles

A quick look at van Gogh’s palette prior to his sojourn to southern France offers a great benchmark for understanding the revolution that was to come. In his early days, van Gogh worked primarily in a muted, drab palette in part because much of his work was focused on rural life in the Netherlands. Scenes of lower-class individuals hard at work, like Peasant Woman Digging (1882), or city views that conjured the murky dusk hours of Northern Europe, like Sien’s Mother’s House Seen From the Back Yard (1882) dominated his portfolio. Even when he left the Netherlands he took these cool colours with him: in People Strolling in a Park in Paris (1885) van Gogh emphasized the earthy browns and greens of a late-day park stroll  rather than the exuberance other artists were documenting in bold colours around the city.

One of these innovators in colour and technique was Georges Seurat, whose pioneering technique of Pointillism – applying paint in successive, small dots of colour – caused a stir in 1886 when his composition, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) debuted at the Impressionist exhibition that year. A remarkable work that showcased the potential of working with a kaleidoscope of colours, Sunday Afternoon undoubtedly left an impression on van Gogh who arrived in Paris just in time to catch the showcase. Equally impactful was van Gogh’s exposure to Japanese woodblock prints accessible in Parisian galleries. Enamoured with the bold colours of these works, like Andō Hiroshige’s Plum Park in Kameido (1857) – a print that van Gogh himself eventually owned – van Gogh was primed with artistic inspiration that set him on  a course toward a wholly new compositional style infused with colour.

Arriving in Arles: The Yellow House and a “Studio of the South”

Though van Gogh spent two years in Paris, by early 1888 he was ready for a locale far from the dreary, cold streets of northern France. He found his perfect destination in Arles, specifically in a small yellow house that met his budget and location needs. Though his accommodations were modest, his vision was grand: he wrote to his brother hoping to establish a “Studio of the South”, or artist’s commune, in his rented yellow house to encourage a sanctuary for others equally passionate about painting. Van Gogh was so excited about this concept that he invited Paul Gauguin to join him and even conjured paintings of his home’s rooms to send to his loved ones.

Unfortunately, van Gogh’s vision did not fully come into focus. Gauguin did join him for several months in late 1888, but more controversy than collaboration ensued, enough that the chaos must have contributed to the breakdown that van Gogh experienced in early 1889 and that led to his hospitalization at Saint-Rémy de Provence soon after. Despite this sad turn, the fifteen months that van Gogh spent in Arles yielded hundreds of paintings, many of which exuded the colouristic energy that van Gogh sought.

Provence Perfection: Van Gogh’s Colouristic Shift

Looking at the works van Gogh created while in Arles demonstrates how this time in Provence allowed van Gogh to fully explore an expanded palette. Some prime examples include:

Landscape in the Snow (1888)

Though van Gogh left Paris to avoid winter conditions, an unusual weather pattern resulted in snowfall as far south as Arles during the artist’s first weeks in Provence. Already, though, in paintings like Landscape in the Snow, van Gogh has embraced a wholly new palette. The somber hues that once dominated his paintings are now subdued figuratively and literally, as bold strokes of brighter, icier whites, greys, and blues capture the crisp glimmer of a fresh blanket of snow. Even brighter colours convey aspects of the loosely rendered landscape in the distance implying spring is on the horizon. Partnered with this dynamic new palette is van Gogh’s exploration of paired brushstrokes: rather than blending colours together, here van Gogh lays strokes of paint side by side, the result of which is a visual effect that allows the eye to absorb these colours almost as if they are animated or vibrating on the surface of the composition.

Haystacks (Meules de Blés) (June 1888)

Conjuring the warmth of an early summer day, van Gogh’s Haystacks exudes the sensation of a sunbaked atmosphere so effectively that it is as if he is transporting us to the rural scene. Interestingly, he chooses a subject here quite like many of his earlier works; however, the influence of this colouristic shift is apparent. Rather than subduing the scene with the visual weight of muddy colours, van Gogh’s Haystacks instead offer a more joyous feel thanks to the way the fieldworkers in the foreground blend into the scene and echo the mottled blue summer sky that fills the horizon.

Farmhouse in Provence (1888)

Even more inviting is van Gogh’s Farmhouse in Provence, where the electric teal sky complements the flaxen grass that fills the foreground to suggest a splendid summer afternoon in southern France. It is in paintings like Farmhouse where the description that van Gogh sent to his brother comes to life. Specifically, the “red patches of flowers” here illuminate the painting’s foreground both in their contrast to the colours around them and thanks to van Gogh’s use of thick impasto, or layering of paint, upon the composition’s surface. With these intensified colours, one can truly sense that “something happier and more suggestive of love” captured in van Gogh’s pictorial frame.

Wooden Cabins Among the Cypress Trees (Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès) (1889)

Despite van Gogh’s departure from Arles to seek medical care, his newfound passion for colour traveled with him. Art proved a solace for him during his time at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, and the works that he created there, like Wooden Cabins Among the Cypress Trees, reveal how his exploration of colour as a means of expression continued to thrive. Using some of the same colours that animated Farmhouse in Provence, van Gogh’s Wooden Cabins offers an even more dynamic interplay between hues and brushstrokes, between the spindly strokes that construct the cypress trees in the distances to the soft yet bold arc-like strokes that capture the foliage in the foreground. The deep shadows that he creates for these shrubs – striking in their cold colours in contrast to the goldenrod grass in full sunlight – remind the viewer that van Gogh remained committed to colour throughout his career.

Picturing Provence: The Legacy of van Gogh’s Colour

Van Gogh’s limited stay in Arles forever changed his approach to colour and thus can be seen as a turning point in his evolution. These shifts in palette, combined with his experimentation with new colour relationships and techniques, contributed to some of his most beloved paintings and cemented his status as one of the most central figures of late 19th-century artistic innovation. When you happen across one of van Gogh’s paintings from this period, whether in a museum or in your own collection, breathe in that energy and appreciate how expressive colour can be.