Van Gogh's Bedroom shows his living quarters at 2 Place Lamartine, Arles, known as the 'Yellow House'.
Van Gogh's Bedroom shows his living quarters at 2 Place Lamartine, Arles, known as the 'Yellow House'. It is one of his most famous images. His use of bold and vibrant colors to represent the skewed perspective of his room demonstrated his liberation from the muted palette and realistic depictions of the Dutch art tradition, as well as the pastel tones often used by the Impressionists. He worked intensively on the motif, colors and arrangement of this composition and wrote many letters to Theo about it: "This time it's just my bedroom, here the color should do everything and give things a grander style through its simplification, here it should be calm or generally suggest sleep. In other words, looking at the picture should quiet the brain, or rather the imagination." While the bright yellows and blues may initially seem to signal restlessness, the bright colors are reminiscent of a sunny summer day, which is what Van Gogh intended. This personal interpretation of a scene, in which specific emotions and memories determine the composition and color palette, is an important contribution to modern painting.