Windmills on Montmartre

Vincent van Gogh's "Windmills on Montmartre" captures a moment from his time in Paris, a crucial period when his style began to transform. He moved to Paris in 1886, the same year he painted this work, and lived with his brother Theo. This move exposed him to the avant-garde, including artists like Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were pushing against Impressionism. While his earlier Dutch works, often depicting peasant laborers, were characterized by somber tones, his time in Paris saw his palette brighten considerably. Here, we see him exploring a local landscape, a subject he would continue to develop. The Montmartre windmills, like the one in this painting, would appear in several of his works from this period, including "Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmartre," which dates to early 1887. This painting marks a transitional phase, hinting at the bold colors and expressive brushwork that would fully blossom during his later, more famous periods in Arles and Saint-Rémy.