Unloading Sand Barges

Catalogue numbers: F 449, JH 1558.

The town of Arles is on the Rhone, and that busy waterway appears in a number of van Gogh's works. He painted the quayside with stevedores at work as well as more panoramic views of the river as it sweeps its way through the town. But in such works there is something stylised and remote about his treatment, as if it was difficult to come to terms with this aspect of Arles.

The present painting is curious. The barges and their workmen are solidly and attentively painted; but the setting is minimal and unfinished. Nothing indicates exactly where this is all taking place. A small stretch of quayside suddenly gives way to a sketchy river bank, a beach even. Beside the barges a man in a rowing boat is fishing, but his relation in space and scale to the barges is not clear. Van Gogh sent the painting to his friend and fellow artist Émile Bernard. A dedication was painted on the canvas which has since been erased.