The Luminous Light of Arles, France

If you are a lover of art or history, then Arles in South France is definitely a place that should be visited. We recently did, as part of our latest Viking River cruise aboard the Heimdal River Cruise, and Arles was one of the significant Southern French cities we explored. The combination of monumental Roman architecture and Van Gogh’s presence still felt through his numerous paintings of the area, are reasons enough to draw you to this remarkable city.

Although Arles was first settled by Greek colonists, it definitely prospered under the Romans. In 43BC the town sided with Julius Caesar over his rival Pompey. As a result, when Caesar became Emperor, Arles was rewarded with a magnificent amphitheater and buildings of a circus, baths and a forum. 

In February 1888, Vincent van Gogh arrived in Arles. Before that, he had lived in Paris, where he developed his pioneering postimpressionism style of painting with bold, dramatic impasto brush strokes and vibrant, saturated colors. During the more than fourteen months he spent in Arles, he created a multitude of paintings, most of which are now considered masterpieces of late 19th century art and are exhibited in museums and collections around the world.

Before his move to Arles, Van Gogh had never been to the South. The warm and bright southern light and its effect on color was one of the reasons that made him move to Provençe in February 1888.

Van Gogh’s paintings from Arles are often associated with the color yellow which plays a very prominent role in his masterpieces from that period. “Le Pont de Langlois à Arles, avec dame au parapluie” is one of them; we saw the actual bridge that doesn’t seem to have changed much through the years, except for the lack of the yellow hews of the surrounding area that were absent in real life.  

Since Van Gogh’s era, the passage of time has little changed the luminous quality of the light bathing this fascinating city.

Van Gogh worshipped the Provençal sun and the gold hued light it generated. The sunlight inundates the landscape and enabled him to give his paintings the strong, vibrant colors that he saw in his mind.

His night paintings, including “Starry night over the Rhône”, emphasize the importance he placed in capturing the colors of the night sky and the warm coloration of artificial (electric) lighting that was new to Europe at the time. Vincent first started to work on his night scenes during his time in Arles. One of his goals was to paint the night scene without using any black color. He’s mentions that in one of his letters to his brother.

Van Gogh never signed “Café Terrace at Night.” However, he specifically mentioned the painting in three pieces of correspondence; therefore, art historians are confident that he did indeed paint it.

The exterior of the present day Café la Nuit is now tinted the yellow color of his painting.

While in Arles, Van Gogh also painted his bedroom in the “Yellow House” numerous times. Unfortunately the actual building was bombed during WWII and the current structure looks nothing like what the house he shared with Gauguin did at the time as depicted in his “Yellow House” painting.

In October 1888, Gauguin joined Van Gogh in Arles in the house Vincent rented, where Gauguin stayed for just over two months. The two friends lived together: they shared expenses, drank absinthe at the local cafés and painted the same or very similar subjects.

Van Gogh conceived the first of three paintings of the “Bedroom” in October 1888, a month after he moved into the Yellow House. As he wrote to his brother Theo, “It amused me enormously doing this bare interior with a simplicity à la Seurat.

In flat tints, but coarsely brushed in full impasto, the walls pale lilac, the floor in a broken and faded red, the chairs and the bed chrome yellow, the pillows and the sheet very pale lemon green, the bedspread blood-red, the dressing-table orange, the washbasin blue, the window green. I had wished to express utter repose with all these very different tones.”

As we walked around the city of Arles, the presence of the great artist was palpably felt.

Some of the experiences mentioned in this article are based on complimentary stays, meals, or goods. But as always, we are dedicated to giving you unbiased accounts of our experiences. See our Disclosures page for more information.