Vincent van Gogh painted this painting during his last stay in Paris, in 1887. Vincent rented an apartment together with his brother Theo in the artists’ neighbourhood Montmartre. During this year, several important exhibitions made Van Gogh get acquainted with the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Compared to their work, Vincent’s paintings were dark and old-fashioned. Vincent started to paint flowers and landscapes to train himself in using clear colors and develop his painting skills.
The influence of the impressionists is clearly visible in this painting. Thin strokes of brightly colored paint create a flowering patch of grass.
In July 2008, a European team of scientists revealed a color portrait of a woman’s face underneath this painting. Click here to read about this discovery and the used technique.
It’s commonly known that Vincent van Gogh painted new paintings over other paintings. Vincent experimented a lot with different techniques and colors on canvas to develop his painting skills.