Boulevard de Clichy
Paris, Febuary-March 1887
Oil on canvas 45.3x55cm
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
the entire direction of this painting is down and out. All angles are directed down; the large arrow like white sky is pointing down and away. The cold emptiness of paving gives one a feeling of the distance he would have to travel to join the few stiff people close to the shops and cafes. It is pretty clear in this painting, as in others, Vincent didn’t love Paris, not in a drizzle or a sizzle…It is as foreign and remote to his mind as Nuemen his home town was. The trees are bare and thin the pale sky street and buildings, remind me of a corpse with Absinthe green shadows and pathetic sparse, hair like trees. The population is frozen too. There is no life in the crowd on the distant sidewalk. He was miserable and wanted us to know that. He may have been seeking agreement or sympathy, or just a witness to his alienation.
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