Sunset in Montmartre

Montmartre in 1887 was still half country. Windmills, kitchen gardens and worked-out quarry ground lay on top of the hill, while the chimneys of the factories on the plain smoked away on the horizon. Van Gogh was living on the slope with Theo and painted that view over and over through the year. This one is a strip of canvas, about 21 centimetres high and 46 wide, done in February or March with the light almost gone. For a long time it was catalogued as a night scene, and the old Dutch title in the museum's records still calls it factories by moonlight. Reading the light as a low winter sun moves the picture from the middle of the night to the end of a short afternoon. It stayed at Theo's apartment in March 1887 along with the rest of that season's work.