A Woman Walking in a Garden

This dates from 1887, the two years Van Gogh spent in Paris living with his brother Theo, when his palette suddenly lit up. He had come from the dark browns of his Dutch peasant paintings, and in and around the riverside suburb of Asnieres that summer he turned out something like 40 canvases, teaching himself the bright, broken colour of the Impressionists he was meeting. Here a woman strolls through a green garden dotted with flowers, a building half hidden by trees behind her. Nobody knows who she is, unusual for Van Gogh, whose letters usually name his subjects. He painted a thin red border straight onto the edge of the canvas to frame the scene, a small habit of his in these Paris years.