The Bridge at Courbevoie

Van Gogh sketched and painted bridges in the Parisian suburbs repeatedly during his 1887 summer spent in Asnières with Émile Bernard. The Courbevoie bridge — a modest iron road bridge over the Seine — was a frequent subject for both artists, and their joint paintings of it have been studied as direct evidence of their shared aesthetic conversation in the summer of 1887. Van Gogh was absorbing the divisionist technique of Seurat and Signac at exactly this time, having met both painters through his brother Theo, and these bridge studies show the direct influence of Seurat's Grande Jatte, painted on the opposite bank of the Seine.

Short comma-like strokes in a range of blues, greens, and whites build the water and sky in a clearly divisionist manner. The iron bridge structure is rendered in flat grey-blue silhouette. The light and air quality is notably lighter and more atmospheric than any earlier Van Gogh, reflecting the Parisian colour revolution of 1887.