Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre

Vincent van Gogh

Contemporary-Art.org
Keywords: VegetableGardensMontmartre

Work Overview

Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre
Vincent van Gogh
Date: 1887; Paris, France *
Style: Post-Impressionism
Genre: landscape
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 81 cm
Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands


The Montmartre paintings are a group of works that Vincent van Gogh made in 1886 and 1887 of the Paris district of Montmartre while living there with his brother Theo. 


Montmatre's vegetable gardens, fenced in blocks for security and to clearly separate the allotted spaces, supplied the Paris markets with spinach, lettuce, cabbage and other vegetables.[12]


Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre (F346) depicts the changing landscape of the Montmartre landscape. In the foreground are allotted vegetable gardens with people working in their allotments. Although still somewhat rural, a large apartment building is constructed in the fields. The three remaining windmills in the area had now become a source of entertainment and respite from working in the city. Le Blute-Fin, also called Le Moulin de la Galette was the largest standing mill offering a café and a terraced viewing platform for looking over Paris from behind the mill. Between the mills are dining establishments and dance halls. He used techniques he picked up from the Impressionists and Pointillists, such as use of short brush strokes or dots of color. The colors are much brighter than the somber colors he used in the Netherlands.[13]


Vegetable Gardens in Montmartre: La Butte Montmartre (F316), the same name as painting F346, was selected by Van Gogh for his first exhibition in 1888 in Paris. Both paintings reflect how much he had learned since he came to Paris and were made on the same hill. The summery landscape depicts the vegetable gardens with the city skyline in the distance. Van Gogh was pleased with his work on this painting, commenting that it "breathed fresh air and joy".