Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The

Van Gogh had come south to Arles in February 1888, hungry for strong light and colour after the grey winters of Paris and the north. This little drawbridge over a canal caught him at once, partly because it reminded him of the Holland he had left behind, and he painted it several times that spring. Here a group of women kneel at the water's edge doing their washing while a cart crosses the raised deck above them. He kept the colours clean and separate, a bright yellow structure against blue sky and blue water, the way he thought the Provençal sun asked to be painted. The bridge stood on the canal that ran from Arles down toward the sea, and it was known locally by the name of its keeper.