The Trinquetaille Bridge

Van Gogh set his easel on the Arles quayside in October 1888, a few minutes' walk from the yellow house he was renting, and painted the iron bridge that linked the two banks of the Rhône. He told his brother Theo exactly what he was after: a sky and river the colour of absinthe, lilac quays, blackish figures, and the bridge itself an intense blue. The stone staircase drops the eye straight down to the water while the walkers hurry across the top. He made it during a burst of work that autumn, weeks before Paul Gauguin came to share the house and the winter turned bad. The picture stayed in private hands and sold at auction in 2021.