Pont du Carrousel and the Louvre

Pont du Carrousel and the Louvre (1886) at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen was painted shortly after Van Gogh's arrival in Paris, when the city's monumental architecture and the Seine's celebrated bridges were among the subjects he engaged as a newly arrived painter absorbing the scale and complexity of the French capital. The Pont du Carrousel — one of the Seine's stone bridges running along the south facade of the Louvre — gave him a subject that combined urban architecture, river reflections, and the specific Parisian quality of grey light and haze that the Dutch tonal tradition had not quite prepared him for. This early Paris cityscape, before his palette had fully transformed under Impressionist influence, still shows something of the Dutch atmospheric landscape technique he had developed in Nuenen. The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a Danish museum with significant French art holdings, holds this alongside other early Van Gogh works.

The composition divides between the bridge and its reflection in the Seine, the Louvre's mass providing the architectural backdrop. Van Gogh's developing Paris palette is visible — lighter than his Dutch period, with more varied color. The water reflections are handled with loose, broken strokes. The overall effect is atmospheric and Impressionist in sensibility.