Van Gogh's Card
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Van Gogh, Cézanne and Monet — three painters, three card studios

The three painters behind this studio and its two friend sites: what each of them changed, and where to paint with their palettes.

Van Gogh's Card is built on one painter's language — the swirling long strokes, comma dabs and paired complementary colours that Van Gogh pushed to their limit in Arles and at Saint-Rémy. Two friend sites are built the same way for the painters he measured himself against: Cézanne's Card, for the constructive colour patches with which Paul Cézanne rebuilt Mont Sainte-Victoire more than eighty times, and Monet's Card, for the broken light of Claude Monet's garden at Giverny. Together the three cover the twenty years in which Impressionism turned into Post-Impressionism.

Three painters, three studios

Every studio distils one painter's palettes into a tool that runs in the browser. One of them is this site; the other two are friend sites.

  • Vincent van Gogh

    1853–1890Post-ImpressionismThis site

    Paint a Starry Night-style card from the palettes of his paintings — swirling impasto strokes, the sunflowers, the Yellow House at Arles and the cypresses of Saint-Rémy.

    Open · Van Gogh's CardVan Gogh's Arles

  • Paul Cézanne

    1839–1906Post-Impressionism

    Build a Mont Sainte-Victoire card from his Provençal palettes — constructive colour patches, the ochre of the Bibémus quarry and the studio at Les Lauves.

    Visit · Cézanne's CardCézanne's Provence

  • Claude Monet

    1840–1926Impressionism

    Paint a Giverny garden card from his palettes — the water lilies, the Japanese bridge, the haystacks and the light of Impressionism.

    Visit · Monet's CardMonet's Garden
1874 · The name
Monet shows Impression, Sunrise at the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris; a critic's mockery of the title gives the whole movement its name.
1886 · Paris
The last Impressionist exhibition is held, and Van Gogh arrives in Paris the same year — meeting the Impressionists and Cézanne's generation head-on.
1888–1890 · Arles and Saint-Rémy
Van Gogh's most productive years: the Yellow House, the sunflowers and The Starry Night. Cézanne keeps working alone in Provence.
Today · Where they hang
Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Van Gogh's The Starry Night at MoMA, Cézanne's Card Players at the Musée d'Orsay — and a palette studio for each of them online.

1Van Gogh: the stroke becomes the subject

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) reached Paris in 1886 and met the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists head-on. What he took from them he turned into something else: paint laid on in long, loaded strokes that carry the drawing itself. In Arles from February 1888 he pushed it further — the Yellow House, the sunflowers painted for Gauguin's room, the Café Terrace at Night — and at the asylum of Saint-Rémy he painted the swirling sky of The Starry Night and the cypresses twisted like green flames.

2Cézanne and Monet: the two he measured himself against

Monet (1840–1926) was the movement's founding eye — it was a critic mocking his Impression, Sunrise in 1874 that named Impressionism, and he spent his last forty years at Giverny painting the same water lilies again and again. Cézanne (1839–1906) went the other way, working alone in Provence and turning Impressionist colour into geometry: the patches of Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Bibémus quarry that led Picasso and Matisse to call him the father of modern art. Van Gogh admired both, learned from both, and then went somewhere neither followed.

Start with Van Gogh's palettes

Twenty-seven palettes distilled from his Dutch, Paris, Arles and Saint-Rémy periods, plus colour extraction from your own photos. No account, nothing uploaded.

Open the studioSee the gallery

Frequently asked questions

Who are the three painters on this page?

Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Claude Monet — the three painters behind this studio and its two friend sites.

What is a friend site here?

The other two studios are made the same way: each distils one painter's palettes into a tool that runs in the browser. They cross-link with this site in the footer and on this page.

Were Van Gogh, Cézanne and Monet contemporaries?

Yes — all three overlapped. Cézanne (1839–1906) was the eldest and showed with the Impressionists, Monet (1840–1926) led them, and Van Gogh (1853–1890) arrived a generation later and burned through it all in four years.

Can I paint with the other painters’ palettes on this site?

No — each studio carries its own painter’s palettes only. The other palettes live on their own friend sites: follow the links above.

Keep exploring

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