Van Gogh revisited (14)

This is the 14th in a series on Vincent van Gogh’s works that are featured at the exhibition titled “Van Gogh in Paris: a Dialogue with Modernism” at Seoul Arts Center. ― ED.

Vincent van Gogh's "Bank of the Seine" (1887), from the Van Gogh Museum, is one of his landscape paintings of the Parisian suburbs.

He captured the scenery of the river and bank with a fenced riverside road, a house and trees, in subdued colors. The exact whereabouts of the place in the picture is not identified, but it is estimated to be somewhere near the Island of La Grande Jatte, since Van Gogh did not leave the outskirts of Paris.

Like other post-Impressionists, Van Gogh painted the scenery very quickly. The canvas was finely woven and had a thin ground of pure lead white. He used short strokes to paint the bank and leaves, while longer strokes for the river to portray its flow. To emphasize the airy texture of clouds, Van Gogh used his fingers instead of a brush.