Arles Amphitheatre, Vincent Van Gogh

At the time of Van Gogh’s life, Provence held many traditions that seemed exotic to northern Parisians and Dutchmen.

One of these was the bullfights, which took place in Arles’ ancient Roman arena and were depicted in a series of paintings by Vincent.

In the example of the main image, Vincent chooses not to focus on the violent spectacle of the bullfight, but instead on the spectators themselves.  The painting borrows heavily from Japanese woodblock prints, with its simplified human figures and its perspective, which looks down on the crowd from a diagonal, raised position, echoing works such as Hiroshige’s The Great Bridge in the Rain. 

The ritual of the bullfight would have seemed romantic, foreign, exciting and strange to Van Gogh.  Perhaps the crowd reminded him of the Japanese prints in his collection depicting the exotic, light-filled festivals of that far-eastern land.