Vincent Van Gogh's Stay in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence May 9, 1889 - May 13, 1890
Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh was born in a village in the Netherlands on March 30th, 1853. He had three sisters and one brother, and their parents instilled in them an appreciation for the outdoors by going on many walks, which highly influenced Gogh's love for nature.
Feeling unfulfilled in his life, which led him to quit school at the young age of thriteen, he finally found his place in art. Starting with drawing, and encouraged by his brother Theo at the age of 27 years old, he eventually became a painter in what is known in art history as the PostImpressionism movement. After suffering a major mental health crisis in which he cut off his ear, he was admitted into a psychiatric hospital in the village of Saint-Rémy in the south of France. Most of the works of art that he created during this stay were done from his small room where he could view from his window the Alpilles Mountains as well as wheat fields and vineyards.
"My dear sister,..... I believe that at present we must paint nature's rich and magnificent aspects; we need good cheer and happiness, hope and love. The uglier, older, meaner, iller, poorer I get, the more I wish to take my revenge by doing brilliant colour well."
An excerpt from a letter to his brother Theo, three months into his stay. Sept. 2nd, 1889.
"I’m perhaps exaggerating in the sadness I feel at being knocked down by illness again – but I feel a kind of fear. You’ll tell me what I tell myself too, that the fault must be inside me and not in the circumstances or other people. Anyway, it isn’t fun."
Vincent expressing the decisions behind his use for vibrant colors in a letter to his sister Willemien. Sept. 14th, 1888.
"I wanted to tell you that I think I’ve done well to come here, first, in seeing the reality of the life of the diverse mad or cracked people in this menagerie, I’m losing the vague dread, the fear of the thing. And little by little I can come to consider madness as being an illness like any other."
- Vincent
