Van Gogh occupies a place of honor in the history of Arles. In love with the blue sky of these lands, The Dutch master arrived in Arles on February 20, 1888. He was accompanied by his friend Paul Gauguin. and its objective was twofold. He wanted to create, on the one hand, a school for artists and, on the other, he wanted to recover from his health problems. He didn’t achieve any of his goals. Gauguin’s friend returned to the north of the country, he cut off his famous ear and ended up imprisoned in the old Hôtel-dieu-Saint Esprit, a former 16th century health house, today a cultural space dedicated to him.
By car through the impressionist villages of Normandy
From his Arlesian period, which spanned 15 months, 300 canvases remained in history. Many of them can be enjoyed thanks to the reproductions placed in the places where the painter is supposed to have installed his easel. The public garden, the hospital, the Van Gogh café, the docks of the Rhône river or the Roman necropolis, known as The Alyscamps and which continues to attract dozens of painters As was the case with Van Gogh himself, they are part of that pedestrian circuit that can be done in this city of just over 50,000 inhabitants, curiously a population similar to that of its Roman times.