Banks of the Seine at Asnières with Moored Boats — Vincent van Gogh

From Van Gogh's Paris years, painted in the suburbs along the Seine at Asnières during the summer of 1887, when he was learning directly from the Impressionists and Pointillists. The brushwork here is shorter, the palette lighter — a Van Gogh still finding his weather. The wide river, the moored boats along the warm-coloured bank, and the cloud-filled sky form a scene that is almost orderly by his later standards — a transition piece that connects his Dutch roots to the explosion of Arles. The postcard is a good way to keep that transition on hand. From the Vincent van Gogh collection.