Period IV
The Bursting Brushstroke
1888.02 - 1889.05 · Arles Complementary colour contrast reaches its peak. A dream exploded.He arrived in Arles in February 1888. Provence was under snow, but within weeks the southern light changed everything.
He rented the Yellow House and painted sunflowers for Gauguin’s room. Art, friendship and daily life were meant to become one thing.
Gauguin arrived, tension rose, and the dream collapsed. The dream exploded; the technique matured.
Colour
- Yellow-violet, orange-blue, red-green become structural pairs
- Chrome yellow is used intensely
- Night is painted through colour rather than black
Brushstroke
- Long directional strokes
- Impasto becomes assertive
- The surface begins to vibrate as one field
Serial work
- Orchards, sunflowers, chairs and rooms become cycles
- Decoration is treated as a complete environment
- Friendship and studio planning enter technique
Causes
Light Provence gave him the southern light he had imagined.
Pigment Industrial tube colours made intense chrome yellow practical.
House The Yellow House made decoration a technical project.
Crisis Gauguin’s arrival and departure compressed the whole dream.
Representative works · Material Evidence
Starry Night over the Rhône F474 / JH1592 · 1888.09 Night becomes blue, gaslight and stars instead of black. 
The Night Café F463 / JH1575 · 1888.09 Colour as a psychological room. 
Sunflowers F454-F458 · 1888-89 Sunflowers painted as decoration for Gauguin’s room. 
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear F529 / JH1657 · 1889.01 The rupture leaves the studio dream in pieces. Key letters
letters 628-640 The line about needing a starry night.
letter 691 · 1888.09 Letters about the Yellow House and the decorative series.
Back to the breath line
On the breath line, Arles is the densest movement from hope to rupture:
The energy of building the Yellow House forged the brushstroke we now recognise as Van Gogh.