In 1887, during his transformative Paris years, Vincent van Gogh painted Roadway with Underpass—a work that stands out for its experimental brushwork and palette, marking his embrace of the new ideas swirling through the city. What makes this painting especially intriguing is that it captures a slice of modern life: the construction of Paris’s expanding infrastructure, a subject rarely tackled by van Gogh. While most of his contemporaries were drawn to the city’s boulevards and bustling crowds, van Gogh turned his attention to the quieter, transitional spaces—places where old and new Paris met beneath the arches of progress. At the heart of Roadway with Underpass is a moment of passage: a lone figure or perhaps a couple, dwarfed by the stone underpass, steps into the shadowed tunnel while sunlight glances off the road above.

The thick, energetic strokes—so typical of van Gogh’s Paris period—animate the stone and earth, while the palette of ochres, greens, and blues reflects his growing fascination with color theory. The underpass itself becomes a symbol of transition, both literal and metaphorical, as if the artist is meditating on the journey from darkness into light. Compared to Claude Monet’s treatments of urban infrastructure, such as his views of the Gare Saint-Lazare, van Gogh’s approach is more intimate, focusing less on the spectacle and more on the psychological resonance of the scene. The exact medium of Roadway with Underpass remains uncertain, though oil on canvas is likely given van Gogh’s practice at the time.

There is little documentation about its early ownership or exhibition history, which is not uncommon for works from his Paris years, a period when van Gogh was prolific but largely unrecognized. Today, the painting is valued as a key example of his Parisian evolution, bridging the earthy tones of his Dutch period and the vivid colors of Arles. It stands as a testament to van Gogh’s restless curiosity and his ability to find meaning in the overlooked corners of the modern city.