Van Gogh and café culture: 'The absinthes and brandies would follow each other in quick succession'

For Van Gogh, a single man in Paris, cafés represented places to drink, eat or read a newspaper. La Guinguette à Montmartre (October 1886) was presumably an establishment where Van Gogh regularly enjoyed a drink, close to Theo’s apartment in Rue Lepic. In Van Gogh’s time Montmartre was still almost semi-rural, although rapid development meant that the city was quickly encroaching on the hill. On the wall behind her are Japanese prints, which are likely to be those lent by Van Gogh, who was a great admirer of them. Although Van Gogh never did a painting its interior, he made more than a dozen landscapes of the windmills and the area around the entertainment complex.