The Langlois Bridge at Arles

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The Langlois Bridge at Arles: Vincent van Gogh

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Vincent van Gogh Oil Painting - The Langlois Bridge at Arles

Keywords: Langlois, Bridge, Arles

Work Overview: Artist Vincent van Gogh
Year 1888
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 49.5 cm × 64.5 cm (19.5 in × 25.4 in)
Location Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany

The Langlois Bridge at Arles is the subject of four oil paintings, one watercolor and four drawings by Vincent van Gogh. The works, made in 1888 when Van Gogh lived in Arles, in southern France, represent a melding of formal and creative aspects. Van Gogh leverages a perspective frame that he built and used in The Hague to create precise lines and angles when portraying perspective.

Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, as evidenced by his simplified use of color to create a harmonious and unified image. Contrasting colors, such as blue and yellow, were used to bring a vibrancy to the works. He painted with an impasto, or thickly applied paint, using color to depict the reflection of light. The subject matter, a drawbridge on a canal, reminded him of his homeland in the Netherlands. He asked his brother Theo to frame and send one of the paintings to an art dealer in the Netherlands. The reconstructed Langlois Bridge is now named Pont Van-Gogh.

Wallraf-Richartz Museum's Langlois Bridge at Arles depicts a woman holding an umbrella as she crosses the Langlois Bridge, following a horse and buggy that just crossed the bridge. The water in the canal subtly reflects the bridge and the few clouds in the sky. Van Gogh uses impasto paint and color to reflect light, much as we would see it in with our eye. Two tall cypress trees and a white house flank the drawbridge which has a moveable center section between stone abutments.[28] The painting is currently at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, Germany.

The Langlois Bridge reminded Van Gogh of Hiroshige's print Sudden Shower on the Great Bridge.[15] Inspired by the Japanese wood block prints, Van Gogh sought to integrate techniques from Japanese artwork into his own. In a letter to Émile Bernard about the Langlois Bridge, he wrote: "If the Japanese are not making any progress in their own country, still it cannot be doubted that their art is being continued in France." With a Japanese aesthetic, Van Gogh's Langlois Bridge paintings reflect a simplified use of color to create a harmonious and unified image. Outlines were used to suggest movement. He used fewer shades of colors, preferring multiple subtle color variations. The Langlois Bridge reminded Van Gogh of Hiroshige's Sudden Shower on the Great Bridge inspiring him to use blocks of colors, like patterns of yellow against a blue sky, colors chosen to create a sense of vitality[15] of the Japanese prints and the vibrant quality of light in southern France.[16] These approaches created a more powerful impact and depicted the simpler, primitive quality of the country lifestyle.

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