The Bridge at Courbevoie

Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

In May 1887, Van Gogh began working on a series of 30 river scenes and landscapes along the Seine in Paris. He painted The Bridge at Courbevoie in a single session, focusing on the reflections in the water. He was less concerned with using correct perspective or with the proportions of the human figures.

Van Gogh used dashes of paint in all sorts of colors, side by side and sometimes layered. This was his own free variation on Pointillism. That method was familiar to him from the work of artists such as Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935). They used mainly small dots of color.