A Prefeitura de Auvers

Van Gogh painted this on the 14th of July, 1890 — Bastille Day — sitting on the terrace outside the inn where he was lodging in Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris. The little town hall across the square had been dressed for the national holiday, hung with strings of flags and paper lanterns and a garland over the door, and he caught the whole cheerful display in an afternoon. What the scene does not show is how close the end was. Two weeks later, on the 27th of July, he shot himself in a field nearby, and he died two days after that. He gave this painting to Arthur Ravoux, the innkeeper whose family had been looking after him.