Fishing in the Spring, Pont De Clichy

The Seine has been an integral part of Parisian life for centuries for commerce, travel and entertainment. Here Van Gogh primarily captures the respite and relief from city life found in nature. A few of the paintings were made in Paris and the rest in the north western suburbs of Paris in Clichy and Asnières. Through these works the audience can see a transition in Van Gogh's work from one of dark colours and serious themes to more joyous use of colour and light and choice of themes.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks but received little recognition during his lifetime.

Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist "where discourses on madness and creativity converge". His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his painting style came to be incorporated by the Fauves and German Expressionists.

Van gogh attained widespread critical, commercial and popular success over the ensuing decades, and is remembered as an important but tragic painter, whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist.