Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Arles, July 1888
pencil, pen and reed pen and ink, on paper,
49.0 cm x 61.0 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh was very fond of the view from Montmajour, a hill near Arles (FR). He called the large drawings he made there 'the best I've done with my pen'.
Japanese art was a major source of inspiration for Van Gogh. For this view of La Crau, for instance, he drew on the hatched prints and drawings of the Japanese. He used a wide variety of strokes, dots and crosses to emphasize the flatness of the landscape. He wrote to his friend, the artist Émile Bernard, 'It does NOT look Japanese, and it's actually the most Japanese thing that I've done.'