Art Represented In Fiction: The CW's The Originals and Van Gogh's Langlois Bridge

The Brother That Care Forgot depicts a scene where Marcel is trying to extract information from Kol. This torture scene is conducted in the presence of a Van Gogh. Now, it isn't hard to believe that centuries old vampires would have a Van Gogh hanging above the fireplace in their New Orleans home. However, the set decorator chose a rather well known work. It's one in a series of works depicting the Langlois Bridge at Arles called The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing. 

Van Gogh produced these works in 1988 during his brief stay here. And it was in Arles that Van Gogh first met Paul Gauguin.

Paul Gauguin, The Painter of Sunflowers: Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

If you've seen Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990) you may have a felling of déjà vu. The painting was used in the story titled "Crows" in which the “painting” comes to life as do other painting by Van Gogh. It's a celebration of Van Gogh's art and shows good use of the special effects of the time. 

The painting comes to life. 

Van Gogh is dead but his art and vision carries on.

The painting as it hangs at the Kröller-Müller Museaum
 in Otterlo, Netherlands.

Kröller-Müller Museum

You can visit the site today but the bridge is not original as it was replaced several times. The last reconstructed was done to look like Van Gogh's paintings.

Another version, Le Pont De Langlois a Arles, sold at Christie's in 2003 for $8,295,500.















Van Gogh's works on the subject:

The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, 1888, Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
The Langlois Bridge at Arles, 1888, Private collection 
Langlois Bridge at Arles, watercolor, 1888, Private collection
The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Road alongside the Canal, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
The Langlois Bridge at Arles, 1888, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne 
Langlois Bridge near Arles (Sketch from letter to Emile Bernard), March 1888,  JP Morgan Library, New York
Drawbridge with Lady with Parasol, pen and ink, 23.5 × 31 cm., 1888, Los Angeles County Museum 
Langlois Bridge, Arles, pen and ink, 35.5 × 47 cm. May 1888, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart 
Drawbridge in Arles, crayon, 1888, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence