Paris · Montmartre · 1886 -1888
Van Gogh in Paris: Montmartre, color and modernity
In two years, the painter of the browns of Nuenen discovered the avant-gardes, Japanese prints and a capital where light is divided into colorful touches.
Paris does not give Van Gogh a ready-to-wear style. The city offers him encounters, works and contradictions that he absorbs at full speed - before leaving for Arles with a painting that has become unrecognizable.
The decisive turning point
Why is Van Gogh coming to Paris?
Vincent van Gogh arrived in Paris at the beginning of March 1886, earlier than expected and almost without warning his brother. He is thirty-two years old. After years in the Netherlands and Belgium, he painted the peasants of Nuenen in a range of dark lands, studied drawing in Antwerp and understood that he had to confront modern art directly.
Paris offers exactly what it lacks: exhibitions, merchants, artists' cafés, workshops and the possibility of seeing the Impressionists other than through reproductions or stories. The Van Gogh Museum sums up his need with a very accurate formula: he seeks the "friction of ideas" with other painters. Living with Theo also reduces expenses.
Theo works for Boussod, Valadon & Cie and knows the contemporary art market. The two brothers live first on rue Laval, then at 54 rue Lepic, in a larger apartment with a view of Paris. Their cohabitation puts an end to almost daily correspondence: for this crucial period, historians paradoxically have fewer letters between them.
Two very dense years
From the Cormon workshop to the train to the South
The mutation is neither instantaneous nor linear. Van Gogh borrows, abandons and combines several methods before finding a touch that belongs only to him.
The discovery
He moves in with Theo and sees the impressionist works. His palette remains dark at first, but the subjects and formats begin to change.
The Cormon Workshop
He studied briefly in Fernand Cormon's workshop and met Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin there.
The laboratory
Montmartre, Asnières, flowers, cafes, self-portraits and Japanese works: he multiplied his essays and showed his works in several modest places.
The departure
Exhausted by Paris and attracted by a clearer light, he takes the train to Arles. Parisian language will be deployed on a large scale.
A district between city and countryside
Van Gogh's Montmartre is not yet a postcard
When Van Gogh painted it, Montmartre had just been attached to Paris for a little over twenty-five years. Boulevards, cafes and buildings are gaining ground, but the mound retains mills, quarries, vegetable gardens, palisades and almost rural land. This unstable border becomes his preferred motif.
Painting the seams of the capital
Van Gogh is less interested in official monuments than in the areas where the city is made. An embankment opens a perspective, a quarry cuts through the hill, a palisade introduces a rhythm. The Blute-Fin and Galette mills are not only picturesque emblems: they organize space and tell the story of a landscape in transformation.
From the apartment on rue Lepic, he observes the roofs and the vast panorama to the south. On foot, he quickly reaches the paths of the hill. The proximity allows it to return to the same place under different lights, with varied frames and seasons.
The paintings of 1886 sometimes retain grays and browns. Those of 1887 are ventilated: the shadows become blue, the earth is divided into small touches and the reds of the roofs respond to the greens. Montmartre makes visible the speed of his learning.
An avant-garde without a single school
Toulouse-Lautrec, Bernard, Anquetin, Signac: the encounters that shift his gaze
Van Gogh briefly attended Fernand Cormon's studio, appreciated by young artists because teaching there was less rigid than in the official academy. There he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin. Friendships, discussions and exchanges of paintings count more than school exercises.
Framing and modern life
His direct way of capturing the figures, cafes and leisure activities of Montmartre encourages a painting free from the great historical subject.
Exchange and simplification
Younger than Van Gogh, Bernard became a lasting interlocutor. The two painters exchange Japanese works, ideas and prints.
Color divided
The sessions around Asnières bring Van Gogh into contact with a separate touch and very constructed chromatic contrasts.
An observed method
Van Gogh admires the power of tonal division, but refuses the scientific regularity of a formula applied everywhere.
Boulevard de Clichy as an artistic corridor
The boulevard connects places of work and sociability. Van Gogh frequented cafes, restaurants and color shops there. At Julien "Père" Tanguy, artists buy equipment, sometimes leave works and meet other painters.
This geography matters as much as famous names. Modernity is not only transmitted in official salons: it circulates in windows, back rooms, small hangings and discussions. Van Gogh sees the paintings up close and can immediately compare their technique to his own.
However, he did not become the disciple of any group. He borrows clarity from impressionism, color separation from neo-impressionism, certain framing from Toulouse-Lautrec and Japanese prints from another conception of space. His style is born from this very personal montage.
Summer 1887 · Along the Seine
In Asnières, the touch divides and the color takes on air
Van Gogh leaves the dense center on foot, crosses the fortifications and works in the communes of the Seine northwest of Paris. Asnières, Clichy, Courbevoie and the banks offer bridges, factories, restaurants, boats and leisure areas. With Paul Signac, he paints in direct contact with the modern landscape.
A light constructed by juxtaposition
The white of the facade is not laid as a uniform surface. It results from cream, yellow, blue and pink touches that the eye recomposes from a distance. The red of the awnings and openings enlivens the whole without going through a dark pattern.
Van Gogh retained from neo-impressionism the idea that two neighboring colors can gain vibration when they remain distinct. But its touch varies in length, direction and thickness. It follows the wall, the road, the foliage or the sky instead of obeying a regular point.
The industrial and recreational suburbs suit this hybrid language. Chimneys and bridges sit alongside walkers and terraces. The modern subject is neither idealized nor condemned: it provides a structure of lines and contrasts.
See Paris through Japan dreamed of
Japanese prints change the framing as much as the color
Vincent and Theo bring together several hundred Japanese prints. They are then relatively accessible in Paris and circulate among merchants, magazines and exhibitions. Van Gogh does not consider them as simple decorative curiosities: he studies them, exposes them and transposes certain principles.
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The face
Tanguy is frontal, solid and calm. His presence does not dissolve in the decor.
The prints
The wall becomes a mosaic of landscapes, figures and flowering branches.
The flat areas
Brighter colored areas replace the brown pattern of Dutch works.
The outline
The clear limits give the forms a readability that deep perspective no longer ensures alone.
The framing
The cut patterns and superimposed planes produce dense, almost vacuum-free space.
The contrast
Blues, reds, yellows and greens respond to each other around the central figure.
Van Gogh also created three "Japanese works" based on prints, including the Bridge in the rain inspired by Hiroshige. It does not copy mechanically: it enlarges, intensifies colors, adds a calligraphic border and transforms the printed image into a very material painting.
A fruitful influence, but an imagined Japan
European Japonism selects and reinterprets objects taken out of context. Van Gogh admires in prints sharpness, flat areas, diagonals, plunging views and the ability to find beauty in everyday life. He also attributes to them a harmonious simplicity which is part of his own ideal.
This nuance avoids two errors: presenting Van Gogh as a copyist, or considering his vision of Japan as a faithful knowledge of the country. His Japonism is a tool for transforming Western painting and a cultural construction typical of Paris at the end of the 19th century.
In Arles, he will search in the southern light for the equivalent of Japan that he had first discovered in the printed sheets of Paris. The lesson of framing and color will therefore continue well after his departure.
Café du Tambourin · Avenue de Clichy
Agostina Segatori, exhibitions and fragile sociability
A café can become a gallery
Agostina Segatori, an old Italian model, runs the Tambourine café. The establishment is frequented by artists and decorated with tables in the shape of a tambourine. Van Gogh exhibited paintings there and, probably in February-March 1887, a selection of Japanese prints.
Agostina's portrait unites modern life and Japonism: behind her, a Japanese print contributes to the decor. Pose, cigarettes and drinks do not make up an ideal figure. Van Gogh paints a specific person in a specific social place, with new attention to greens, reds and contours.
Later stories evoke a sentimental relationship and meals exchanged for paintings. Some of these details come from late memories and must be presented with caution. What is certain is that the Tambourine offers Van Gogh an exhibition space outside the official circuits.
In Paris, Van Gogh did not wait for an institution to consecrate him: he hung in cafes, exchanged with his peers and organized opportunities to show the new painting himself.
The literature documentation places its exhibitions at the Tambourin and the Restaurant du Chalet in 1887.
Its most available model
Self-portraits record experiences, not a single mood
Due to lack of money to regularly pay for models, Van Gogh uses his reflection. The majority of his self-portraits date from the Parisian years. Together, they constitute an extraordinary color chart: felt or straw hat, shaved or red beard, blue, green, punctuated or radiant backgrounds.
Skin is no longer flesh-colored
Greens and blues enter the face, while oranges in the beard gain strength through contrast. The touches follow the skull, tighten around the eyes and radiate into the background. The resemblance is based less on a smooth gradient than on colorful architecture.
The mirror reverses the image. It also places Van Gogh in a very particular situation: the one who observes is simultaneously the one who poses. This tension explains the intensity of the gaze without it being necessary to read each time the proof of a crisis or a precise psychological state.
At the end of the period, theSelf-portrait as a painter adds palette and brushes. Van Gogh no longer shows himself only as a face available for exercise: he affirms his profession and the program of modern portraiture that he wants to pursue.
See the self-portrait with a markerBouquets as intensive exercises
Flowers teach Van Gogh to think in color
During the summer of 1886, Van Gogh painted numerous floral still lifes. The subject is accessible, can be worked on indoors and allows you to quickly multiply the pairings. Gladioli, peonies, carnations, roses and sunflowers force him to abandon the brown range for more frank reds, yellows, pinks, greens and blues.
Before Arles, the sunflowers are lying down
The famous bouquets set up in a vase belong to Arles. In Paris, Van Gogh first painted the cut flower heads, placed horizontally. He studies their petals, their heavy hearts and irregular matter on a contrasting background.
These paintings show that Parisian transformation is not just about the outdoors. In the workshop, Van Gogh learns to make an object vibrate through its colorful neighborhood. The blue or turquoise background intensifies the yellow; the thickness of the brush gives the seeds and petals an almost tactile presence.
The series announces its future method: take a pattern, vary it and push a color problem until it becomes a standalone image. The Sunflowers of Arles will be a new stage, not an unprepared appearance.
Before and after Paris
The palette lights up, but above all the painting changes logic
| Element | Before Paris | In Paris | What prepares Arles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palette | Earths, black, ocher and muted green | Blue, pink, yellow, red and complementary | More intense accords and expressive value of color |
| Key | Dense pattern, often melted surfaces | Separate, visible and directional keys | Wider gesture and rhythm specific to each motif |
| Topics | Peasants, weavers, rural interiors | Suburbs, cafes, self-portraits, flowers, urban views | Modern life, landscapes and thematic series |
| Space | Relatively stable Western perspective | Cut, diagonal and flat frames inspired by prints | Simplified compositions of the Yellow House and orchards |
| Network | Often isolated work | Exchanges with painters, dealers and collectors | Project for a collective workshop in the South |
Change does not erase the Dutch artist. Van Gogh retains his interest in workers, ordinary objects and the moral force of portraiture. Paris gives him new means of painting them. This continuity explains why his art is never completely confused with that of Monet, Seurat or Signac.
February 20, 1888 · Towards Arles
Why leave the capital when his painting opens?
Paris has enriched Van Gogh, but the city exhausts him. Life is expensive, cohabitation with Theo becomes tense and the intensity of the cafes and the artistic network weighs on his health. He wants to work in clearer light, live at a lower cost and find a landscape that he associates with Japan prints.
Arles does not erase Paris: it accomplishes it differently
When he arrived in the South, Van Gogh already had the clear palette, the knowledge of complements, the separate touch and the taste for Japanese framing. The orchards, bridges and cafes of Arles give him new reasons to push these achievements further.
His "Atelier du Midi" project also extends group exhibitions and Parisian exchanges. He wishes to bring together artists around joint work, while remaining linked to Theo's commercial network. Gauguin's future arrival belongs to this ambition born through contact with the avant-garde.
To say that color "explodes" in Paris is therefore fair provided we do not imagine a sudden miracle. It becomes clearer through successive attempts: in front of the works of others, in the streets, on the banks, facing the mirror and among the prints.
Choose a Parisian reproduction
What work by Van Gogh in Paris for your interior?
For a living landscape
Paths, mills and gardens offer a luminous presence without the frontal intensity of a portrait.
For a clear palette
The facades, bridges and banks combine blue, cream, green and red in very airy compositions.
For a focal point
Agostina, Father Tanguy or the self-portrait create a strong presence in an office, a library or a living room.
For a graphic rhythm
The Rain Bridge is suitable for spaces where diagonals, solid areas and borders can breathe.
A natural wooden frame accompanies the views of Montmartre. Walnut or matte black highlights the portraits. For very colorful works, an off-white, gray blue or sage green wall lets the complements act without competing with them. Avoid direct light, which crushes shades and tires pigments.
Six gateways into the period
Parisian works to discover
Mermaid Restaurant
A clear facade built with small touches and complementary accents.
Portrait of Father Tanguy
The figure of the color merchant in front of a wall of Japanese prints.
Agostina Segatori
The café, the modern figure and the Japanese decor combined.
Self-portrait with felt-tip pen
The complements and the radiant touch at the top of Parisian research.
Bridge in the rain
A Hiroshige print translated into material, color and large format.
Sunset in Montmartre
A wide view to observe the transformation of light and landscape.
Continue the visit
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Frequently asked questions
Understand everything about Van Gogh in Paris
When did Van Gogh live in Paris?
Van Gogh arrived at the beginning of March 1886 and left the capital on February 20, 1888 for Arles. He lived with his brother Theo, first on rue Laval then at 54 rue Lepic, in Montmartre.
Why did Van Gogh come to Paris?
He wants to see modern art directly, meet other painters and benefit from the "friction of ideas". Living with Theo reduces his expenses and places him at the heart of the Parisian artistic and commercial network.
Which artists did Van Gogh meet in Paris?
He notably met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin in the Cormon workshop. He also met Paul Signac, knew Gauguin and observed the research of Seurat and the Impressionists.
How is Paris transforming Van Gogh's palette?
In contact with impressionism, neo-impressionism and Japanese prints, he gradually abandoned dark lands in favor of blues, yellows, pinks, reds and greens. He juxtaposes colors rather than systematically blending them.
Where did Van Gogh paint in Paris?
He works in Montmartre, from rue Lepic and around mills, gardens and quarries. He also painted the boulevard de Clichy, the cafes, then the banks and restaurants of Asnières, Clichy and Courbevoie.
What role do Japanese prints play?
They offer flat areas, clear contours, diagonals, cut frames and a different perspective. Van Gogh and Theo collected several hundred, and Vincent exhibited them at the Café du Tambourin in 1887.
Why does Van Gogh paint so many self-portraits in Paris?
He lacks money to pay models. His reflection allows him to practice portraiture and quickly test hats, backgrounds, touches and colorful chords. The majority of his self-portraits belong to the Parisian period.
Why is Van Gogh leaving Paris for Arles?
The capital tires him and is expensive. He is looking for clearer light, a different climate and a place to develop a collective workshop. The methods learned in Paris became the basis of his major series in Arles.
Main sources: folder Why did Van Gogh want to live in Paris? from the Van Gogh Museum; summary of the exhibition Van Gogh in Paris from the Musée d'Orsay; documentary apparatus of Vincent van Gogh - The Letters on the Parisian period and the letter 640 on exhibitions and prints. Accessed July 2026.
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