Impasse des Deux Frères

When Van Gogh painted this in the spring of 1887 he had been living in Paris for about a year, sharing his brother Theo's apartment, and his colours were lightening fast under the Impressionists he was meeting. The spot is Montmartre, then still a half-rural edge of the city climbing above the rooftops. The old windmills up there had long stopped grinding grain and had been turned into open-air cafes and dance spots that pulled in Sunday crowds. Van Gogh painted this hill again and again that year while he worked his way toward a brighter palette. He left the canvas at Theo's when he moved on, one of roughly 200 pictures he made across his two Paris years.