Focusing on the Paintings of Asnières (Van Gogh series), explain the Factories at Asnières Seen from the Quai de Clichy about the Factories.
Factories at Asnières Seen from the Quai de Clichy Factories at Asnières is a modern landscape depicting industrial growth as it takes over rural plains, a phenomenon called by some "banlieue" or "terrain vague".  A fence demarcates the line between the flowing rural field and emission-generating industrial complex. Van Gogh has used horizontal bands to deliberately depict the earthy hues and movement of the field in contrast to the solid, carefully drawn geometric shapes of the factories and chimneys.
The painting seems to illustrate a line from one of van Gogh's favorite novels, L'Assommoir by Émile Zola: "a great forest of factory chimneys" filled the sky.  The topic had been picked up by Impressionists, such as Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and Armand Guillaumin, but van Gogh may have been most intrigued by a work he saw at the 1886 Société des Artistes Indépendants by Charles Angrand entitled Terrains Vagues.Based upon the provenance for Factories at Asnières Seen from the Quai de Clichy (F317), the work was part of Père Tanguy's collection until 1894. Julien (Père) Tanguy sold art supplies and was an art dealer who took paintings as payment for paints,  which Émile Bernard said made entering his shop in Montmartre, full of Impressionist paintings, like "visiting a museum". When Tanguy died in 1894, his friends staged an auction for his widow.
provenance Impressionist Père Tanguy's banlieue Émile Bernard L'Assommoir Camille Pissarro Société des Artistes Indépendants Émile Zola Claude Monet Armand Guillaumin Montmartre Charles Angrand Asnières