Outskirts of Paris

Outskirts of Paris are paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in 1887, while he was living in Paris with his brother Theo. Van Gogh liked to explore the outskirts of Paris, searching for pastoral settings in parks and the wooded areas of the suburbs. His goal was to find scenes that would allow him to explore techniques he learned in Paris. Like many Impressionsits, Van Gogh was concerned about the way in which the landscape and way of life was affected by technical progress and industrialization. He felt the concern back in Holland, which he expressed to Anthon van Rappard, "I remember as a boy seeing that heath and the little farms, the looms and the spinning wheels in exactly the same way as I see them now in Anton Mauve’s and Adam...