View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic
The rooftops of Paris seen from the window of the Montmartre flat Van Gogh shared with his brother Theo — the building still stands.
Paris
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic — at a glance
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
- Year
- 1887
- Movement
- Post-Impressionism (Paris period)
- Place
- 54 rue Lepic, Montmartre, Paris
- Viewpoint
- The window of the flat Van Gogh shared with Theo — the building still stands (plaque)
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 46 × 38 cm
- Now at
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Overview
This quiet grey cityscape was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1887, during the two years he lived in Paris with his brother Theo. It looks out over a sea of Paris rooftops and chimneys towards the domes and towers of the city, from an upper window, with a slice of the room's window frame or balcony at the lower edge. It is oil on canvas, about 46 by 38 cm, and it hangs in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Where was View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic painted?
Museum interpretation In June 1886 Theo van Gogh took a larger flat on the third floor of 54 rue Lepic, on the slope of Montmartre, and Vincent lived there with him until early 1888. The apartment window looked south-east over the roofs towards central Paris. The building at 54 rue Lepic still stands (marked with a plaque), and the general prospect over the city rooftops survives, though the skyline has changed.
What is in the painting?
The foreground is the top of the window frame or a balcony rail; beyond, block after block of grey Paris roofs, chimney pots, dormer windows and party walls receding to a hazy skyline where larger buildings and a dome or two show faintly. The palette is subdued — greys, blue-greys, muted browns — under an overcast sky.
Look closely
The window frame
A slice of the room's window or balcony rail sits at the lower edge — the viewer is inside the flat.
The chimney pots
Rank after rank of Paris chimneys and dormers recede across the picture.
The hazy skyline
Larger buildings and a faint dome show through grey air at the horizon.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A high, flat sweep of rooftops from a window, receding to a soft grey horizon.
Scholarship Van Gogh flattens the view into overlapping planes of roof and wall, the paint applied in small even strokes. It is one of his more restrained, tonal Paris pictures, closer to the grey palette he had brought from the Netherlands than to the bright colour he adopted later that year.
History & provenance
The painting was kept by Theo's family and is in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, which holds the family collection.
Sources
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam — collection entry for Vincent van Gogh, ‘View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic’ (1887)
- ‘Vincent van Gogh: The Letters’ (Van Gogh Museum) — the rue Lepic apartment
Related paintings
More by Vincent van Gogh
Café Terrace at Night
The Church at Auvers
Starry Night Over the Rhone
Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin
Also connected to Paris
The Massacre at Chios
Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin
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