View from Vincent's Studio

Painted on cardboard from the window of the studio Van Gogh shared with Theo at 54 rue Lepic on Montmartre, this 1886 view of Paris rooftops documents the specific location from which his transformation from Dutch provincial painter to Parisian modernist was conducted. He arrived from Antwerp in February 1886 and moved into the Lepic Street apartment, which Theo had taken partly to accommodate his brother's presence in Paris. The view from the upper floors of Montmartre — down over the rooftops and chimneys of the city spreading toward the south — became a subject he returned to multiple times, treating the same panorama under different light conditions and at different stages of his chromatic development. This earliest version, still cautiously structured and moderately light in palette, is a document of arrival: the painter newly present in his subject, not yet transformed by it. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

The rooftop cityscape is treated with a palette already considerably lighter than his Dutch period work, showing the bleaching effect of Parisian Impressionism on his color sense. The paint is applied in broader strokes than his later work, with the architectural elements still given a structural clarity that recalls his northern training.