Who were the painters of the Petit Boulevard?

Vincent van Gogh was part of a rising group of young painters in Paris. The painters of the Petit Boulevard separated themselves from successful impressionists like Monet, Degas, and Renoir. Other painters of the Petit Boulevard were Pissarro, Seurat, Signac, Gauguin, Laval, Bernard, Anquetin, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Today 134 years ago, on or about 3 April 1888,

Vincent van Gogh wrote to Theo from Arles:

"I’m in the uncomfortable position of convincing Tersteeg I really am an Impressionist of the Petit Boulevard and that I expect to retain that position. Ah well, he’ll have one of my paintings in his own collection — I’ve been thinking about it these past few days and I’ve found a funny thing of a kind I’m not going to do every day. It’s the drawbridge with a little yellow carriage and group of washerwomen, a study in which the fields are a bright orange, the grass very green, the sky and the water blue.”

Bridge at Arles (Pont de Langlois)
Arles, 1888
Oil on canvas
54 × 64 cm
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

You may also like to read:

• What happened to the rest of Van Gogh’s painting of Two Lovers?

Van Gogh's 'Bridge at Arles (Pont de Langlois)'

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