Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières)

Van Gogh painted Fishing in Spring at the Pont de Clichy in 1887, when he and Émile Bernard were making regular excursions from Paris to paint the Seine at Asnières and Clichy. The languid fisherman, the iron bridge, and the river traffic were subjects shared with several Impressionist painters, but Van Gogh's version distinguishes itself through the intensity of the green-blue water and the boldness of the complementary accents. He was in active dialogue with Seurat's divisionism — Grande Jatte had been exhibited the year before — and the divided touch of the water surface shows this direct influence, though Van Gogh's strokes remain more varied and expressively irregular than Seurat's systematic dots.

The water is rendered in short, horizontal strokes of blue-green and turquoise with complementary touches of orange-yellow for reflections. The bridge above provides a horizontal accent in grey and rust. The overall palette is among the highest-keyed in his Paris work, anticipating the colour decisions of Arles.