Van Gogh in Arles

The Yellow House, the sunflowers and the starry night over the Rhône — plus Saint-Rémy and where Van Gogh's paintings are today

In February 1888 Van Gogh travelled south from Paris to Arles. He rented the two-storey Yellow House on Place Lamartine and dreamed of turning it into a “Studio of the South” where painters would live and work together. In the hard light of Provence he painted the sunflowers, the wheat fields and the night cafés, and lived the most intense year of his life. In 1889 he entered the asylum at Saint-Rémy; a year later he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise and died there in July 1890 — those three years hold nearly everything he is known for. This page walks you through Van Gogh's Arles: the Yellow House, the sunflowers, the stars, and where the paintings hang today.

Where: Arles, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Open: The Yellow House site carries a plaque (destroyed in 1944); memorial sites at Saint-Rémy and Auvers are open year-round — check official calendars
Signature works: The Starry Night · Sunflowers · The Bedroom in Arles · The Yellow House · Wheat Field with Cypresses · Almond Blossom
Where to see: Van Gogh Museum · Kröller-Müller Museum · Musée d'Orsay · MoMA

1Van Gogh's Yellow House and the Studio of the South

Van Gogh reached Arles in February 1888. In May he rented the Yellow House on Place Lamartine, using the ground floor as kitchen and studio and the two upstairs rooms as bedrooms for himself and Gauguin. In his letters to his brother Theo he called it the “Studio of the South” — a utopia where painters would live together. One of its two upstairs rooms became Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles — the yellow bed and blue walls he painted three times. Gauguin arrived in October and they painted Provence side by side for two months, until the quarrel and the famous ear episode in December. The Yellow House itself was destroyed by bombing in 1944; a plaque marks the site today, and the house survives only in the paintings.

2Van Gogh's Sunflowers: the flowers he painted for the Yellow House

In August 1888 Van Gogh began painting sunflowers in a vase — decorations for Gauguin's room. He planned twelve panels to fill a wall with yellow; among those completed, the most famous now hangs in the National Gallery in London, another in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, with further versions in Munich and Philadelphia. Chrome yellow, from bright to dark, builds the petals — “the sunflower is mine”, he wrote.

3Van Gogh's Starry Night and the night cafés

The Arles nights are the other thread: the green-and-red gaslight of The Night Café, the stretched starlight on the water in Starry Night Over the Rhône, and the little street lit by a yellow awning in Café Terrace at Night. Van Gogh's most famous Starry Night was not painted in Arles — in 1889, from his window at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, he combined memory and observation into that revolving sky; it now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

4Saint-Rémy and Auvers: cypresses, irises and wheat fields

In May 1889 Van Gogh committed himself to the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy. The view from his window became his subject: cypresses twisted into the sky like green flames in Van Gogh's Wheat Field with Cypresses, irises in rows in the garden, and Van Gogh's Almond Blossom painted for his newborn nephew. In May 1890 he moved north to Auvers-sur-Oise for his last two months: The Church at Auvers, Portrait of Dr Gachet and Wheatfield with Crows all come from there — today among the most closely watched of Van Gogh's paintings.

5Where are Van Gogh's paintings today

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam holds the largest collection in the world (around two hundred oils and more than five hundred drawings); the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo is next with more than sixty oils. The Starry Night is at MoMA in New York, the Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, with major works at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum. To see Van Gogh's paintings in one sweep, start in Amsterdam.

Paint this sky into a card

The studio's palettes are distilled from the sunflower yellows of Arles, the cobalt of the Rhône and the cypress greens of Saint-Rémy — pick one and paint a southern night of your own.

Paint with Van Gogh palettes See the gallery of Van Gogh-style cards Van Gogh's Arles and where his paintings live

Van Gogh in Arles — frequently asked questions

Where did Van Gogh paint The Starry Night?

At the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in 1889, from the window of his room, combining observation with memory into that revolving sky; the painting now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Does the Yellow House still exist?

No. The Yellow House was destroyed by bombing in 1944; a plaque marks the spot on Place Lamartine today, and the building survives in Van Gogh's paintings and letters, including the famous night scene of it.

How many Sunflowers did Van Gogh paint?

A series: about four cut-flower studies in Paris and five vase paintings in Arles (including copies). The most famous version is in the National Gallery in London, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam holds another.

Where are Van Gogh's paintings today?

The three most important places: the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (around two hundred oils), the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and MoMA in New York (The Starry Night); with major works at the Musée d'Orsay, the National Gallery in London, the Neue Pinakothek and the Metropolitan Museum.

What was the Studio of the South?

Van Gogh's name for the Yellow House project in Arles: a home where painter friends would live and work together as a southern school. Gauguin came and stayed two months; the partnership ended in a quarrel, but it left the Sunflowers and The Bedroom in Arles behind.

Every page in both languages: the studio, Van Gogh's Arles, his paintings and the museums that hold them today.