The Voyer d’Argenson Park in Asnieres

The park at Asnières, one of six

The record dates The Voyer d'Argenson Park in Asnieres to 1887. Eleven titles in this catalogue name a park: six dated 1887 and five dated 1888, and none in any other year. Five of the six dated 1887 name this same park at Asnières, under five different phrasings — an avenue in it, a lane in it, an entrance to it, a way in it, and the park itself. Keeping five records apart rather than merging them is the ordinary work of a catalogue.

What the record gives

The canvas measures 75.5 by 115 centimetres, a wide horizontal, and it is held by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds thirty-four of the ninety-five works dated 1887, its largest single year. The measured palette reads as green.

Green in the second Paris year

Green dominates twenty-five works dated 1887, against twelve in 1885 and sixty-five in 1888. The family is climbing steadily through the Paris period rather than arriving at Arles, which is the pattern the measured palettes show for the whole decade and the reason this site orders its rooms by year. What was in front of the painter in this park, and on what day, the record does not say.