Visiting Vincent Van Gogh sites in Arles, France
Le Jardin de l'Hôtel de Dieu (Espace Van Gogh).
The renowned Impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh spent a little over a year living in Arles, but it was an extremely prolific period for him, creating over 300 drawings and paintings here between February 1888 and May 1889.
The Van Gogh Pedestrian Path in Arles consists of about a dozen locations that have been identified as the likely spots where Van Gogh set up his easel for well-known paintings. Signs are set up in these areas showing photos of his works juxtaposed against the real life streets and landscapes that inspired his masterpieces. The signs are quite informative. Once you find them.
You would think this “path” would be easy to find and navigate, but surprisingly, it’s pretty challenging to do on your own.
Van Gogh’s presence is felt very strongly in Arles. In fact, the first thing I noticed when I got off the train was a little Vincent santon in a shop window. (Santons are small clay figurines that depict all sorts of aspects of life in Provence. They are traditional crafts of the region and are popular souvenirs.)
But not one of Van Gogh’s original paintings is on permanent display in Arles! (However, one was on temporary loan from Musee d’Orsay for a short time during the summer of 2024.)
And although “pedestrian path” sounds like a formal trail of some sort, it really isn’t one. If you are expecting to find the type of marking of the Freedom Trail in Boston, which is literally a red line through the city, forget it. Yes, there are markers on the sidewalk pointing to the locations when you are reasonably close to them, but unless you come across them serendipitously or already have some knowledge of where the locations might be, they aren’t really of much use.
We heard a passing Dad tell his son that they were on a “scavenger hunt” for the paintings, and indeed, that is a good description! But c'mon now, all you really need is a map.
The Arles tourism office.
But good luck finding one! Even at the very nicely appointed Tourism Office, (located on Boulevard des Lices) which has posters of the artist in great abundance, you’ll not find a single printed map on the Van Gogh Path! However, a very nice staff member (who didn’t seem to mind my spotty French) was very helpful in pointing me to a QR code for a link that listed the various sites to see in Arles, including the Van Gogh stops. Here’s a link to that specific Wivisites page with a map of the Van Gogh painting sites.
(We just saved you a lot of trouble. You’re welcome!)
Van Gogh was one of the earliest artists to use color as something more than representative of real life. He preferred to use color as an expression of his feelings about the subject. He also used quick, dynamic brush strokes to capture the energy and emotion of the scenes he depicted, which garnered some raised eyebrows from more deliberate artists who were his contemporaries.
But Van Gogh knew what he was doing. His quickness was purposeful and meant to capture something fleeting; the light, the moment, a gesture, the feeling. His style is referred to as Impressionist.
It is very inspiring to see his interpretations of these somewhat ordinary scenes, and the kinds of things he focused on.
We didn’t get to all of them - but perhaps you can!
Famous paintings featured along the Van Gogh Pedestrian Path in Arles
La Maison Jaune (The Yellow House)
In 1888, Vincent rented several rooms at number 2 Place Lamartine. Unfortunately, the original yellow house and some other buildings associated with the painting no longer exist - they were destroyed during WWII as Allied bombers were aiming for the nearby train station but missed. But you can visit the location and see the view from where Van Gogh set up his ease, and even without the house, the location is recognizable. This location is about 100 meters south of Arles train station and is a good starting point for a do-it-yourself walking tour.
The site of The Starry Night on the Rhône.
The Starry Night on the Rhône
An earlier companion piece to the more famous Starry Night (which was actually painted in St Remy de Provence and depicts that town) was inspired by the view from the Quai du Rhône (the bank - or “quay” - on the east side of the Rhône) which is just a short walk from the Yellow House location.
You don’t even need to walk all the way to the exact location of the posted sign to immediately see that this was clearly Vincent’s view. This is a nice walk along the river bank and fun for seeing some of the small river cruise ships that dock here.
The Roman Amphitheater in Arles
Les Arenes
Van Gogh painted the Roman Amphitheater, which is a dominating feature of the town and probably the biggest tourist site in Arles. Interestingly, Vincent made the crowd the focus of his painting instead of the “scene” as he was usually inclined to do. The spectators in the painting are watching a bullfight. The arena is still used for bullfighting today.
We spent a lot of time at the Amphitheater and never actually found the Van Gogh easel that is supposed to be here, but no matter! This is one of the best things to do is Arles and we highly recommend seeing it. You can just wander about in it and unlike the Colosseum in Rome, which it is modeled after, you can find yourself alone a good deal of the time. Also the views of the city from the higher tiers and towers are just so classic and beautiful.
The Roman Amphitheater is just one of several Roman ruin sites to visit in Arles. For info on visiting them and lots of other things to see in Arles beyond Van Gogh, check out our other blog post on the town, Visiting Arles, France: a little city in Provence with big things to see.
Le Café de Nuit (The Night Café)
The cafe scene Van Gogh painted is located at The Place du Forum, which was the historical city center of Arles. This is one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings for its sultry evening feel and dreaminess.
Unfortunately, the Café Van Gogh, as it has been renamed, was closed and not in business at the time of our visit. However, I’m sure someone will be interested in buying it and opening it up again! The other shops around the Cafe certainly seem to take advantage of having a famous neighbor, so I’m sure it would be welcomed.
Just a personal take - and maybe it was just because the place was shut up looking forlorn when we were there, or because we were there in daylight hours - but this was one of the more disappointing Van Gogh stops for me. I definitely got more of the sultry ambiance and heavy atmosphere captured in Le Café de Nuit while wandering around in the village of Eze at night! But that’s another story for another post.
Even the weeds growing on the steps looks the same in Trinquetaille Bridge
Trinquetaille Bridge in Arles
Van Gogh painted several views of le Pont de Trinquetaille. He was intrigued by the geometry of it, and painted the stairway and the arch where the road passes underneath.
Bridges have crossed the Rhône at this place since Roman times, but this particular bridge was a fairly new one in Vincent’s day. A fun detail - the little sapling Vincent depicted in his 1888 painting of the stairway is now a large, mature plane tree.
I really enjoyed this stop - for so much of it is still the same yet different. Besides for the now grown sapling, there are weedy growths in the cracks of the stone steps just like Vincent painted. I guess some things never change! To me, this painting feels like “everyday life”, full of the busy energy of people going off to work or wherever, and that definitely is still going on there today.
If you walk downstream about 200 meters, you can get the longer view of the Pont de Trinquetaille that he also painted.
We had coffee and tea at Espace Van Gogh. It was like having a snack inside a Van Gogh painting.
Le Jardin de l'Hôtel de Dieu
Van Gogh spent time at the city hospital, the Hotel Dieu, while recovering from a nervous breakdown that led to him famously cutting off part of his own ear. He often sat in the interior gardens, where he produced one of his most famous paintings. He did well recovering in the peaceful surroundings.
Today the former health center is known as Espace Van Gogh, and houses the town library, exhibition spaces, souvenir shops and a cafe. Ironically, these days the gardens are painstakingly arranged to mirror Van Gogh’s painting. I wonder what he would have thought about that!
Even if you visit no other Van Gogh site, do visit this one. It is not only one of the more tangible locations when in search of the man Vincent was (you can plainly appreciate the balcony where he observed and painted the garden during his convalescence), but it is also a perfect place for a break to have a coffee, tea or snack.
The cafe serves tasty treats and drinks, and you can sit out at a bistro table and take in the serene surroundings. Several Van Gogh themed walking tours came through as we were sitting; small, quiet, guided groups that didn't stay long, so it never felt overwhelmed with crowds.
Having a nice cup of French coffee here and people watching in the garden was definitely a highlight of the day for me! I imagine Vincent had much of the same experience.
Le Jardin d’Été
On the Boulevard des Lices there is another public garden that Van Gogh painted several canvases off. A sign on the left hand side of the main gate shows you where Van Gogh stood to paint ordinary people strolling through the gardens.
Legend has it that the paintings he created here caused the arguments he had with a fellow artist about the speed in which Vincent captured a scene. But Vincent defended his quick strokes:
“When someone says that such and such was done too quickly. . . they looked at it too quickly. "
Le Pont Langlois
Outside the city center, the little wooden lifting bridge Van Gogh painted that he called Le Pont Langlois after its owner, used to cross a canal that fed the Rhône. Today it has been moved down a ways south to an unused part of the canal, and is known as Van Gogh Bridge (Pont Van Gogh). The scene he painted was vibrant and full of happy color. The modern view doesn't really do it justice.
There is no shortage of Van Gogh inspired gifts in Arles.
Les Alyscamps
The tree-lined old Roman cemetery of Les Alyscamps, was immortalized in several Van Gogh paintings. With its lines of ancient stone sarcophaguses, it's a strange spot for him to have created his colorful landscapes. You really wouldn’t guess it was a cemetery from his artwork.
Les Alyscamps is outside the old city limits because Roman cities traditionally forbade burials within the city. For this reason, it was common for the roads immediately outside a city to be lined with tombs and mausoleums.
You can walk there in about 15 minutes from the city center, or alternatively you can take a local bus for about €2.
La maison de La Crau (L'Ancien Moulin) (The Old Mill)
The old mill painted by Van Gogh once stood on the edge of town, against a bucolic view of the plain of La Crau. Today, the mill sits on rue Mireille and the scene Vincent captured isn’t quite the same, as it is much more developed. But the decaying roundish tower still stands.
Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles
Arles is home to several museums, but if we are talking specifically about Vincent Van Gogh, the Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles is the one that might interest you most. The Foundation honors the work of Van Gogh through exhibits of contemporary artists who are inspired by him, exploring Van Gogh’s weighty impact on art today.
The Foundation was closed when we visited, BUT it when it reopened in June of 2024, it featured a temporary exhibit called Van Gogh and the Stars, centered around Van Gogh’s actual painting Starry Night over the Rhône, on loan from the Musée d'Orsay. Since there are no real Van Goghs on exhibit in Arles, this was pretty big news. Too bad they couldn’t keep it permanently - alas the painting has already gone home.
You can more about the work they do on the Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles website.
Hope this little post about beloved Vincent, a monumental figure of the art world, leaves you with a good impression. (see what I did there?)
This post was researched and written by Debbie of the Empty Nest Explorers. You can learn more about the Empty Nest Explorers here
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