A Day in Arles: Walking in van Gogh’s Footsteps

“Starry, starry night

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze

Swirling clouds in violet haze

Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue.”

~Don McLean, Vincent

I’m fairly certain that my love for irises began with Vincent van Gogh. I remember being dazzled by a photo of one of his famous Irises paintings in junior high school art class, most likely before I’d seen iris flowers in person. Blue was my favorite color in those days – it still is – and to me there were no shades of blue quite as beautiful as van Gogh’s multi-hued flowers stretching toward the sunlight.

Over the years, I’ve had the joy of seeing Van Gogh paintings in museums, and I even tracked down the apartment with the blue door that he shared with his brother Theo in Paris’ Montmartre neighborhood. But I’d never had the chance to visit Arles, the place in Provence that inspired some of his most prolific work. The city on the Rhône where shimmering light and luminous colors and all those stars were forever gifted to the world because of Vincent van Gogh.

Walking in van Gogh’s Footsteps

It was a sunny June morning when the ms Emerald docked in Arles. The Rhône was still and serene as we sailed into the ancient city founded by the Romans. Herb and I had signed on for a walking tour that promised to include places frequented by van Gogh. Before we left home, I had downloaded a map that matched many of his Arles paintings to the spots where they were created. This was van Gogh’s town, after all, and I didn’t want to miss a thing!

Van Gogh had arrived in Arles from Paris in February 1888, looking for the peace, bright light and vibrant colors of Southern France. He set up his home and studio in the “Yellow House,” which he’d hoped to turn into a sort of creative commune for artists. Paul Gaugin was the only painter who agreed to join him at the Yellow House, and they famously did not get along. In May 1889, van Gogh suffered a psychotic episode and had himself admitted to the psychiatric hospital in the nearby town of Saint-Rémy. Even through his mental illness, he continued to paint.

The first stop on our walking tour was a park near the place where the Yellow House had once stood. Sadly, the house had been destroyed during World War II. From there, we headed into town past an old stone monument that led to a tree-lined street with stone buildings and colorfully painted doors and shutters. It was an easy place to navigate, with narrow streets leading from one to another.

The Roman Amphitheater

The showpiece of Arles is clearly the Roman Amphitheater. Built in 90 AD, it’s remarkably intact and looks like a smaller version of the Colosseum in Rome. We headed inside to the arena, which at one time held more than 20,000 spectators. Chariot races and hand-to-hand battles were the events of the day. Today the Amphitheater is used for plays and concerts – and bullfighting. On our visit, a group of schoolchildren were on the arena floor learning about bullfighting from instructors dressed in matador costumes.

Hôtel-Dieu

The courtyard of the Old Hospital of Arles, called Hôtel-Dieu, was the location for several pantings van Gogh created when he was hospitalized there. He painted The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles from the vantage point of his room. Hotel-Dieu was built in the 15th and 16th centuries, and today the courtyard is a center for van Gogh’s works called “Espace van Gogh.”

Place de la République

Our last stop of the tour was the Place de la République, Arles’ town square. A fourth-century Roman obelisk with a fountain anchors the square, which also features a 17th-century city hall called Hôtel de Ville and the Church of Saint Trophime, a destination on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.

Starry Night Over the Rhône

The night before we arrived in Arles, our Tauck tour directors announced that the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles had recently acquired van Gogh’s masterpiece, Starry Night Over the Rhône. On loan through September 8th from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, it was the first time the painting had been exhibited in Arles since its creation 136 years ago. If any of us wanted to see the painting after our tour, they told us, Tauck would provide tickets to the exhibition.

As I stood in front of that beautiful painting, it felt as if van Gogh’s stars had literally aligned at that moment. I’ll never understand how serendipities like this happen, but when they do, I welcome them with open arms. Seeing Starry Night Over in the Rhône in Arles, while traveling on the Rhône, was one of those moments I will carry with me for a very long time.

A Final Thought

While doing research for our trip, I ran across websites that featured letters Vincent van Gogh had written to his family and artist friends, but mostly to his brother Theo. In 1914, Theo’s wife published more than seven hundred of these letters, which offer tremendous insight into Vincent’s artistic process, his struggles, his devotion to his work, and most of all, his character.

Of the passages I read, this was my favorite takeaway:

“The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”

~Vincent van Gogh, Letter to this brother Theo, Arles, September 17, 1888.