Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)
Montmartre: Windmills and Allotments
Paris, March - April 1887
oil on canvas, 45.2 cm x 81.4 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)Montmartre was still semi-rural in Van Gogh’s time, with allotments and farms. The windmills were a popular destination for day-trippers. The mill on the right, Le Blute-Fin, had a pavement café with a magnificent view of Paris, while the smaller windmill was nicknamed the Moulin à Poivre (‘peppermill’). The expansion of the city is alluded to on the left by the large apartment building that rises above the fields.
Van Gogh wanted to bring ‘sunlight’ into his landscape: he used highly diluted paint, which created a transparent and matt effect, with fresh, pure colours – white in the fields and bright blue in the outhouses. He used dots to execute the buildings and allotments, while painting the sky in a looser, more spontaneous way.
One of the reasons Van Gogh came to Paris was that he hoped to be able to sell his work there. The windmills of Montmartre were located near his home in Rue Lepic, making them an obvious and attractive subject. He eventually drew and painted them some twenty times.
