Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry by Van Gogh Postcard

Hill of Montmartre with Stone Quarry by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1886, is a landscape painting of a hillside with windmill and buildings against a hazy, grey cloudy sky, painted from life in the famous artist district of Paris. A lone figure stands on the grey rocks of the old quarry. Van Gogh painted the scene in broad strokes of thick, impasto oil paint, creating a scene of calm solitude in grey on brown tones. Van Gogh lived in Paris beginning in this year, where he learned the lessons of the Impressionists and others of the Parisian avant-garde, applying the lessons to his own style of realistic Dutch painting and intense interest in the landscape. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and intense, heightened colors. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh’s early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in somber earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to color and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.