アニエールのレストラン・ド・ラ・シレーヌ

Van Gogh painted this in 1887, during the two years he spent in Paris living with his brother Theo. It was the stretch that changed him. He had arrived from the Netherlands painting dark peasants and gloom, and in Paris he met the Impressionists and their bright colour. Asnieres was a riverside town just outside the city, on the Seine, an easy walk away, and he went there often for the bridges and the cafes. This is the Restaurant de la Sirene, seen from outside, its walls flecked with quick white strokes and full daylight. You can watch him arriving at his own style here. The short parallel strokes he lays down, like combed hatching, are the beginning of the restless brushwork that would take over his painting in the south of France.