[2] On August 13, 1888, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, telling him about a series of recent studies.

He mentioned: “For example, there's a quick sketch I made of myself laden with boxes, sticks, a canvas, on the sunny Tarascon road.

[5][4] During World War II, the collection of the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum was transported to a salt mine in the nearby town of Stassfurt, in order to protect it from Allied bombing.

While reports by Monuments Men noted that the contents of the mine had been "entirely reduced to ashes", part of the collection was recovered after the war.

[5] The work has influenced numerous modern artists, serving as an especially important inspiration to Francis Bacon,[6] who produced a series of painting based on The Painter on the Road to Tarascon in 1956-1957.