Garden in Montmartre with Lovers — Vincent van Gogh, 1887

Van Gogh's two years in Paris gave him Impressionism and a lighter palette; they also gave him the street life and parks of Montmartre. This 1887 garden scene shows couples on a path among trees — social, leisurely, belonging to a Paris that was expansive and curious. The painting is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. A postcard for a city collection, a note to someone urban, or a reminder that Van Gogh's range was broader than the dramatic south. From the Vincent van Gogh collection.