Nicholas Wright Van Quotations

So one day I just took the train over to Arles. It's only about two hours. And I was sitting in the actual square, at one of those cafe tables that you see in 'Starry Night,' and all around you the buildings are painted in Van Gogh colors. It's very exciting. Vincent sat more or less where I was sitting.

Think of the contrast. Brixton in the 1870s. Dark, smoky, foggy London, the opposite of what we associate with Van Gogh's art: the bright colors and the sunny, open scenes in Provence.