In the context of this artwork, discuss the Setting of the Development.
Twenty miles northwest of Paris, Auvers was a popular artist colony "discovered" by the Barbizon painter Charles-François Daubigny, who lived there in the 1870s. The village attracted those engaged in the Impressionist movement due to its tranquility and the contrast between its natural environment and the nearby capital city. An influential art colony for 30 years, Auvers provided rich landscapes as well as a sharp contrast between the old, quaint cottages and new industrial features, such as the railway. In Auvers, van Gogh painted portraits, villages, and fields, focusing more on the natural beauty and provincial village life than the new mechanical innovations. Van Gogh largely edited out any signs of industrialisation because he was "more interested in finding a new way of painting traditional motifs – whether through achieving a particular effect of light, or through the expressive use of colour – than recording the encroachment of modern life". Therefore, in Landscape at Auvers in the Rain, van Gogh chose to focus on the old-world charm of the village, from the shaped thatched roofs of the houses to the old cottages, and the natural beauty of Auvers, from the bustling meadows to the dark trees.
Environmentally, Auvers contrasted significantly with Southern France, leading van Gogh to develop new styles to convey his evolving relationship with the novel natural features of the land, reflecting the transition from the hot and dry climate of the South to the "cooler, rainy weather in the north that nourished gardens in Auvers". The climate inspired him to capture the falling rain in Landscape at Auvers in the Rain, but it also revived him on a spiritual level, as he wrote that in Auvers there was "beautiful greenery in abundance" and that it was "far enough from Paris ... to be in the real countryside" with a sense of "well-being in the air". The new location also inspired shifts in artistic technique, as van Gogh explored a heightened palette of bright greens and yellows, expressive brushwork, and innovative compositions, creating some of his most daring works.
Charles-François Daubigny F Barbizon Impressionist Daubigny Southern France Paris