Van Gogh in

Westminster Bridge

When Vincent lived in London, he walked from his boarding house to his workplace each morning and evening, and the route took him across Westminster Bridge. He therefore knew the bridge well as well as the nearby Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament. With a sense of poetry, he wrote to his brother Theo he described what the bridge looked like with the sun setting behind it, in the snow, in the mist and in the morning dew. In Paris in 1875, Vincent saw a painting by Giuseppe de Nittis (1846–1884) depicting the bridge and the abbey and realised how much he loved London At the top edge of the stationery of his employer Goupil & Cie, Vincent made a sketch of De Nittis’ work.