I’ve long been a fan of Vincent Van Gogh, his life and his art and in the summer of 2019, I made a very special trip to Arles in the Provence region of France. I have long wanted to visit Arles and this was my first trip. In order to capture what it meant to me and to perhaps guide others to visit this special place, I am sharing my story and experience in this blog post. It was back in the early 1990s after visiting the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam that I really started to become aware of Van Gogh. The first book I purchased about him was indeed the guide book for the museum..I recall visiting Edinburgh and going round the second hand book shops with my brother and buying lots of old books and catalogues on Van Gogh (I still have all of them). Since then, I have built up a nice little collection of books on the artist.
Places and things
Here is a brief description of places visited and things relating to Van Gogh that have informed my understanding of the man and his art.
Auvers-sur-Oise 1993
A tangible connection with Van Gogh was formed in 1993 when I went on a trip to France with some friends. On the way south to the Loire valley, I suggested that we could make an excursion to the village Auvers-sur-Oise. This is situated to the North-West of Paris and is where Vincent spent his final days. We had a quick look round the village and then visited the cemetery where he is buried. After camping the night in a field nearby, we then continued the journey driving into Paris. I visited the Musee D’orsay for the first time, where I got to view a lot of Vincent’s paintings for the first time.
Paris, 1994
The next notable milestone in my appreciation of Van Gogh actually came in the following year (1994), when I hitch hiked to Paris. Whilst in the city, I ran out of money and devised a way to make some. This involved buying some coloured chalks and a postcard of ‘The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum’. I drew it on the kerb at a few places around the city. The French francs came in and before I knew it my collection pot was full! I got to know this little picture really well and it became one of my favourite images. A tourist from Sweden was kind enough to take a picture of my work and also of me and mail them to me a few months later.
Amsterdam, 2000s
I visit the Van Gogh museum again.
Paris Rue Lepic & Musee D’orsay, 2012
On a family trip to Paris in 2012, we took a walk to Rue Lepic. Vincent stayed here at his brother Theo’s apartment between 1886 and 1888, before departing south for Arles. I also made another visit to the Musee D'orsay where there are many paintings by Van Gogh including 'Starry night'.
Van Gogh Museum & Return to Auvers-sur-Oise, 2015
Another visit to Paris and a day trip to Auvers-sure-Oise. which involves getting the train to Pontoise and changing to a local line and getting a train to Auvers-sur-Oise. On this visit I had a really good look around. It was incredibly quiet, hardly any tourists in March. Unfortunately Dr.Gachet’s house was closed, so didn’t get to look around it.
Van Gogh’s letters
An offer came up to buy the complete letters for half the normal price and this was something that simply could not be ignored. So I made the purchase and have been the proud owner of these 6 volumes ever since.
The visit to Arles, 2019
The visit actually began well in advance and involved watching quite a few videos on Youtube. A lot of very good scholarly talks by leading experts have been uploaded over the last few years. Some of them were specifically describing and analysing Vincent’s time in Arles and provide good context, such as his preceding stay in Paris and the community, customs and traditions that he encountered in Arles.There are also a lot of web pages that detail the sites and places where Vincent lived and painted in Arles. Because I only had one full day in Arles, it was important to study these and map them out for walking around. I was planning on doing some watercolours of some of the locations, so I downloaded Vincent’s original paintings for reference.I flew out on Sunday 21st of July from Edinburgh to Toulouse. In hind sight, I should have flown to Marseilles and then got the train back over to Toulouse (where I was going to be attending the Larroque Arts Festival). The train journey was maybe around 3 hours 15mins I think. I looked on my phone maps as the train pulled into a station and I wasn’t 100% sure that the stop was Arles, so I was poised to either stay on or jump off with all my bags and when I asked someone ‘is this Arles?’ and they said ‘Oui’ I jumped off onto the platform.It was of course dark by this time and I made my way out of the station expecting to see a couple of Taxi’s for hire at the main entrance. To my surprise, there were no Taxis and I wasn’t sure which way I should be heading to try and find one. So I followed a bunch of young American’s down the street and caught them up. To cut a long story short, one of them called me a Taxi and it turned up and took me to the hotel that was located at Sud Fourchon (south of Arles). Checked in and got to bed some time after 11pm. A long day, but was excited and looking forward to seeing Arles.Before going on to describe the 5 sites that I visited, you might like to watch this video that provides a good overview of the places:The AlycampsOpening the curtains in the room on the morning of the next day revealed the intense bright sunlight of Provence and it came flooding into the room. After some breakfast and getting my gear together, I stepped out of the hotel into a very hot morning sun. The first destination on my list was Alycamps. I didn’t really have much of an idea what this place actually was. I understood it to be some kind of public park, but when I got to the place it had a gate and required an entrance fee. Reading the info board, it was originally a Roman necropolis with several streets that were lined with sarcophagus. Nowadays there is one street left, as the locals robbed out the stone material for building projects. In Van Gogh’s time, the locals would take to walking along the tree lined streets and sit on the stone benches to take in the relaxing environment. I paid the entrance fee and walked down the Alycamps, just like they would do in the past and it still has a significant amount of sarcophagus. I found the spot that had the Van Gogh information board, opened my sketch pad and got to work making a watercolour. The sun was getting hot and the sound of the cicadas is a sound that I love. Plenty of tourists came and went and quite a few looked over my shoulder at my work.
Bullfight Arena
The next location to visit was the original Roman amphitheatre. Its not too far a walk from the Alyscamps. I love the buzz and excitement of exploring a new town, following the map and new things constantly appearing on the horizon. It is very spectacular to see a great big Roman amphitheatre appearing before your eyes. I walked around it and found the entrance. Luckily there was a tour due to start. So I paid the admission and did the tour. It was a very intimate tour, with just one other person on it. Exiting the arena, I noticed a little cluster of cafes across from the entrance. It was time to do another watercolour. Van Gogh only made one painting of the arena and the perspective he used for very interesting.
The Yellow House
Walking north and just outside the ancient city gates is Place Lamartine. It has obviously changed in appearance since the time when Vincent lived there, when it was a quiet area with a public garden. The Yellow house fo course no longer exists. It was partially destroyed during an allied bombing campaign in WW2 and then subsequently demolished. This is a great pity, because it is the place that is most associated with Van Gogh as most people are familiar with it. As with the other sites, an information plaque marks the area. Standing at the plaque, you can look right up the street to the train station. It was on this street, just round the corner where Vincent spent a lot of time at Café de la Gare, 30 Place Lamartine. His painting The Night Café (French: Le Café de nuit) depicts the interior of the cafe. On my first visit to the site of the Yellow House, it was difficult to imagine the house and Vincent. A return visit is definitely on the cards.
The Trinquetaille Bridge
A short walk away from the Yellow House, is the river Rhone. It was here that Vincent painted Starry Night, which can be viewed in the Musee D’orsay in Paris. Walking along the river bank you pass the Musée Réattu, which Vincent visited soon after arriving in Arles. Beyond this is the Trinquetaille bridge, which spans across the Rhone. Vincent painted this bridge, however I didn’t make a watercolour here reason being that I couldn’t find a shaded spot to sit. It was very quiet at the bridge, not too many other people around. I compared the painting with how it looks today and it is very similar. I had an impression here of Van Gogh wandering around to find interesting places to draw and paint.
Garden of the Hospital in Arles
This is a stunningly beautiful place to visit. It was peaceful and calm and thankfully not full of tourists. This is the hospital where Van Gogh was treated after he slashed his ear lobe. He was treated by a young Dr Felix Rey, who befriend the painter and had his portrait painted. Dr Rey found Van Gogh fascinating, but realised that he could only treat his wounds and not his mental demons. The hospital still looks surprisingly similar in appearance to how Vincent depicted it in his painting. The forecourt has been recreated as it fell into disrepair. The colours of the plants are beautiful and it was a real pleasure to paint this scene. Again, there is an information plaque roughly on the spot where Vincent would have set up his easel. After having a sit down and a coffee and absorbing the beauty of the garden, it was time to head to the final destination of the day.
Terrasse de café la nuit, Place du Forum (café at night on the Place du Forum)
I walked round the corner and into this square, the site of the former Roman forum. With lots of noises and hundreds of people, it wasn’t what I was expecting. Online reviews of the place did warn about how busy it would be and advised going for a visit in the morning. The reason why I wasn’t expecting this place to be the way it was, is because for many years I have had the image of Vincent’s famous painting stored in my mind. As already mentioned in 1994 I hitch hiked from Glasgow to Paris:‘Whilst in the city, I ran out of money and devised a way to make some. This involved buying some coloured chalks and a postcard of ‘The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum’. I drew it on the kerb at a few places around the city. The French francs came in and before I knew it my collection pot was full! I got to know this little picture really well and it became one of my favourite images. A tourist from Sweden was kind enough to take a picture of my work and also of me and mail them to me a few months later.’So this is the reason why I have this particular painting and place in my mind. When I entered the forum square, I was somehow expecting it to be like the painting, quiet and just a few people around. However, the strange thing is that the cafe in the square that Vincent painted was renovated and remodelled in the early 1990s to look just like the cafe in the painting. So it actually feels like you are in the painting. I looked around to find a seat where I could make a watercolour of the cafe. The cafe has an extended sitting area just across the street so I sat there to get a view. I wanted to have something to eat from the menu, but it was very over priced to the point that the cheapest thing on the menu was a plate of fish soup for an eye watering 15 euros (price in 2019). If I wasn’t making a watercolour then I would most certainly not be entertaining the rip off prices. Worse still, it seemed that the place was just filled with tourists. Reading the online reviews of the place confirm all of this, with an average star rating of 2/5.It was incredibly difficult to get a sense of Van Gogh’s presence at this location. With all of the people, noise and replica cafe gave it a theme park like feeling. It is however a nice place just to sit and listen to the music and drink some wine. But for trying to appreciate Van Gogh and get a sense of the place as it was back in his day, the best idea would be to come back in the morning when it would be quiet.I did leave the place incredibly satisfied that I had visited the forum square and more importantly made a water colour of the cafe from a different perspective point from the one that Vincent had used. The end of an incredibly busy day and one more site to visit the following day, before leaving Arles.
Bridge of Langlois
The next day and the sun was just as hot as the day before. France was experiencing a heatwave, with temperatures hitting 42 deg c in Paris. I packed up my luggage and left it at the hotel and processed out to find the famous swing bridge over the canal that featured in several of Vincent’s Arles works. Using maps on my phone, I navigated my way down some country lanes that ran through the fields. The sun was blazing hot and the Cicadas were very loud. I got a real sense of what it must have been liked for Vincent to wander around exploring the landscape.After walking a few miles I eventually got to the canal, however there was a locked gate that barred the way. I had to go into the nearby house and ask them in my poor French if they had the key to open the gate because I was trying to get to ponte Van Gogh (the name of the place). They graciously opened the gate and I proceeded on. It would have been pretty soul destroying if I had to proceed another few miles up the canal to cross over and then walk all the way down to the bridge.The bridge is in fact actually a recreation of the original, which was demolished in the 1920s (I think). It was then decided to recreate the famous bridge and move it closer to Arles. The original was 5km south of Arles. It is a very impressive bridge and looks like it hasn’t moved or worked in years. One imagines that this bridge might also eventually decay and fall apart. There wasn’t much opportunity to be picky about finding a shaded place out of the sun. There only was one place, a small recess space that was actually hotter than the open space because there was no wind or air circulating in it. I could only really manage 5 minutes at a time in there and then had to jump out to ‘cool off’ in the hot sun.I got down to work of making the final water colour in this series. During the time I was there, a few buses and cars with tourists pulled up. Mainly Japanese people who took lots of pictures before leaving. I kept thinking how good it would be to get on their nice air conditioned bus! At this location I got a real sense of the plein air tradition and literally felt like I was standing in the shows of Van Gogh. I didn’t want to hang around too long, as I was low on water and it was too hot. So I finished off and headed back along the canal to the southern edge of the town and back to the hotel.
My mission to visit Arles and make a series of water colours was complete. It was an incredibly stimulating trip and it is amazing how much you can fit into a couple of days.The final watercolour that I made was in the village of Larroque, Midi-Pyrenees, where I stayed for a week after Arles.
I definitely need to return to Arles, perhaps without the pressure of making water colours. But then again, I know that is just not going to happen as there are so many amazing places to paint. In the next trip I plan to visit St Remey, where Vincent stayed at the Asylum. Perhaps that will be part two of this piece of writing. Until then, aurevoir!
