Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmartre

Description

This painting dates from the winter of 1887, roughly a year after Vincent van Gogh arrived in Paris to join his brother, the art dealer Theo van Gogh. It is one of a group of landscapes featuring the Butte Montmartre, a short climb from the apartment on the rue Lepic where Vincent and Theo lived. Montmartre was dotted with reminders of its quickly receding rural past—abandoned quarries, kitchen gardens, and three surviving windmills, including the Moulin de Blute-Fin. The nonfunctional mill had become a tourist attraction, affording spectacular panoramic views over Paris from the observation tower erected beside it.

Provenance

The artist’s sister in law, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (died 1925), Amsterdam [this and the following according to Van Gogh-Bonger’s account book: "101/17 1/1924 'landschapje op Montmartre/lantaarn' 2500 [guilders] reproduced in Stolwijk and Veenenbos 2002, 136, 165]; sold to Mrs. Elizabeth Carstairs (née Stebbins, died 1949), London, Dec. 1923 for 2,500 guilders; sold through Ernest Brown and Philips (Leicester Galleries), London to M. Knoedler Art Gallery, Paris, Jan. 1924 for £300 [this and the following according to Knoedler Stock Book, no. 15822, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles]; sold to Frederic Clay Bartlett (died 1953) and Helen Birch Bartlett (died 1925), New York, Aug. 1924, for £400; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1926.