The works, made in 1888 when van Gogh lived in Arles, in southern France, represent a melding of formal and creative aspects.

Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, as evidenced by his simplified use of color to create a harmonious and unified image.

[4] The canals, drawbridges, windmills, thatched cottages and expansive fields of the Arles countryside reminded van Gogh of his life in the Netherlands.

[7][8] In 1930, the original drawbridge was replaced by a reinforced concrete structure which, in 1944, was blown up by the retreating Germans who destroyed all the other bridges along the canal except for the one at Fos-sur-Mer, a port on the Mediterranean Sea.

Van Gogh approached the making of the paintings and drawings about the bridge in a "serious and sustained manner" with attention to "the structure, function, and component parts of this craft mechanism in the landscape.

In a letter to Émile Bernard about the Langlois Bridge, he wrote: "If the Japanese are not making any progress in their own country, still it cannot be doubted that their art is being continued in France."

With a Japanese aesthetic, van Gogh's Langlois Bridge paintings reflect a simplified use of color to create a harmonious and unified image.

The Langlois Bridge reminded van Gogh of Hiroshige's Sudden Shower on the Great Bridge inspiring him to use blocks of colors, like patterns of yellow against a blue sky, colors chosen to create a sense of vitality[15] of the Japanese prints and the vibrant quality of light in southern France.

A little yellow cart crosses the bridge while a group of women in smocks and multicoloured caps wash linen on the shore.

"Compositionally, the vertical and horizontal geometry of the bridge and its reflection in the water create a great central cross which imparts a classical symmetry and equilibrium to the canvas.

This central geometric framework, which is echoed and enclosed by the bands of sky above and the bank below, is relieved and enlivened by the great undulating sweep of the hill and shore, the round knot of washerwomen amid the circular ripples of the water, and the flexible, slightly curved grasses at the right.

Two tall cypress trees and a white house flank the drawbridge which has a moveable center section between stone abutments.

[29] Soon after arriving in Arles, van Gogh asked his brother to send him a copy of Armand Cassagne's Guide to the Alphabet of Drawing.

In it, the character David Bowman notices the painting (along with Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World) when observing the living room of "an elegant, anonymous hotel suite" after travelling through the Stargate.

The track is the centerpiece of his 1973 record Artaud, named after the poet, which is generally considered the greatest album in Argentine rock history.

The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing is one of numerous van Gogh paintings visited by the unnamed dreamer in Akira Kurosawa’s film ‘’Dreams’’.