Vincent van Gogh Paintings in Paris — Where to See Them

Vincent van Gogh’s Paris years (March 1886–February 1888) were transformative. He first stayed with his brother at 25 rue Laval (now rue Victor-Massé), then moved in June 1886 to a larger flat at 54 rue Lepic in Montmartre, where he had a small studio and began exchanging works with fellow painters ¹⁸. Seeking training from life models, he enrolled in Fernand Cormon’s atelier libre at 104 boulevard de Clichy in spring 1886, where he met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Émile Bernard, and John Peter Russell—contacts that reshaped his palette and subjects ²³. In 1887 he turned to exhibiting: at Agostina Segatori’s Café du Tambourin he showed Japanese prints (March) and then organized a July group display with works by himself, Gauguin, Louis Anquetin, and Bernard—often cited as his first Paris exhibitions; he likely also showed flower still lifes there ⁴. Van Gogh’s engagement with the avant‑garde broadened via the Société des Artistes Indépendants: in 1888 he exhibited Still Life with French Novels (“Romans parisiens”), listed under his rue Lepic address ⁷. The following year he sent Irises and Starry Night Over the Rhône to the Indépendants in Paris (September 1889) ⁵⁶. In 1890, the society’s sixth exhibition presented ten of his paintings, confirming Paris as the crucible where his Post‑Impressionist language fully emerged ¹⁰.