Arlésiennes (Mistral)

Gauguin reached Arles in late October 1888 to share the Yellow House with Van Gogh, and among his first purchases was 20 metres of very strong, coarse cloth for the two of them to paint on. Van Gogh wrote home about it in early November. This picture is on that jute. The scene is the public garden directly across the road from their door, in the weeks when the mistral, the cold wind that comes down the Rhône valley, keeps everyone wrapped up. One of the two women nearest us, holding her shawl across her mouth, resembles Marie Ginoux, who ran the café where Van Gogh had lodged. The orange cones behind the bench are most likely straw wrappings protecting plants from frost. In the green bush at the right there is a face, and Gauguin put it there on purpose.