View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic

By early 1887 Vincent had been in Paris more than a year, sharing a fourth-floor flat with his brother Theo on the rue Lepic, halfway up the hill of Montmartre. This is simply the view from that window, grey rooftops running off toward the city under a pale spring sky. He had come out of the dark browns of his Dutch years, and Paris was busy rewiring his eye. All around him were the Impressionists, and the small separate brushmarks and cooler light here show him testing what they did. The rue Lepic still climbs the same slope today, and the haze over the roofs is the coal smoke of tens of thousands of ordinary mornings.