Van Gogh in Arles

The Travel Pages describes van Gogh’s time in Arles in Provence, France, where he lived in the Yellow House and painted some of his most famous works.

Vincent Van Gogh came to Arles from Paris in February 1888. He rented the ‘Yellow House’ – the subject of one of his most famous paintings – on place Lamartine, and later his artist friend Paul Gauguin joined him.

Van Gogh was inspired by the Provence light and countryside and painted some of his most famous works, including Van Gogh’s Chair and The Sunflowers. But he also suffered from increasing bouts of madness, which led to a traumatic night in December in which he cut off his ear after a quarrel with Gauguin.

He was treated at the Hôtel Dieu hospital, but his condition deteriorated after Gauguin left, and in the spring of 1889 he left Arles and was admitted to the asylum at St-Rémy-de-Provence.

Fondation Vincent Van Gogh

Sadly, there are no paintings by Van Gogh here in the city which gave him so much inspiration. The Fondation Vincent Van Gogh has a collection of works by contemporary artists who were inspired by him, including Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney.

Espace Van Gogh

The Hôtel Dieu is now the Espace Van Gogh, with the town library and several shops. The lovely flower-filled courtyard has been recreated from Van Gogh’s painting of the hospital gardens.

Café van Gogh in Arles

Van Gogh’s yellow house no longer exists – it was bombed in World War II (you pass the site on your way to the train station) – but you can still have a drink at the cafe he made famous in his painting Cafe Terrace at Night (though it had other titles), now of course also called the Café van Gogh.

It stands out on the place du Forum, a small square filled with cafes, with its appropriately bright yellow awnings. The outside wall of the building is painted in a wash of Van Gogh colours: yellows, greens, golds. Drinks and light meals are served inside or on the large terrace, where it’s amusing to watch the groups of tourists passing through and snapping photographs.

Be sure to go into the bar to see the old zinc bar and curving wooden staircase up to the first floor, where you can imagine Van Gogh downing a few glasses of absinthe at one of the balcony tables. It gets overwhelmingly bad reviews on TripAdvisor, though all we can say is that on our visit there we had a good meal and it was interesting to look around.