Vincent Van Gogh's

Vincent Van Gogh's Stay in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence May 9, 1889 - May 13, 1890

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Van Gogh's Stay in Saint-Rémy

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.

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Van Gogh's Stay in Saint-Rémy

"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.

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"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

CENTE

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Van Gogh's Stay in Saint-Rémy

ERFOLD

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Vincent Van Gogh made up to 150 paintings during this time. Through the pieces of art that he made in Saint-Remy, which includes some of his most recognizable paintings, one is able to gauge his sheer natural talent that was profoundly ahead of his time.

"At last I have a landscape with olive trees,....

While he never found success with art in his lifetime, Van Gogh is now known as one of the most famous painters in history.

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Van Gogh's Stay in Saint-Rémy

He lived his life with profound and intense emotions. And while no one should motonize on his struggles, we cannot deny the ways in which this led to him creating a never before seen style that was as much unique as it was passionate.

....and also a study of a starry sky."

I think it is important and compelling to history and to the stigma of mental illness to view his works of art through an all encompassing lens, which must also include his letters during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul de Mausole.

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Vincent Van Gogh passed away in July of 1890 from complications due to an attempted suicide, only a couple of months after leaving the asylum in southern France.

Sources 1 Window in the Studio. Chalk, brush, oil paint, and watercolor on paper, Oct. 1889 2 Starry Night over the Rhone. Oil on canvas, Sept. 1888.

3 Letter to Theo Van Gogh. 9 May 1889.

4 The Garden at the Asylum at Saint-Remy. Oil on canvas, May 1889.

5 Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette. Oil on canvas, 1886.

6 Entrance to a Quarry. Oil on canvas, June 1889.

7 Wheat Field with Cypresses. Oil on canvas, June 1889.

8 Irises, Oil on canvas, May 1889.

9 The Olive Trees. Oil on Canvas, May 1889.

10 The Starry Night. Oil on canvas, June 1889.

11 Letter to Theo Van Gogh. 6 June 1889.

12 Self-Portrait. Oil on canvas, 1889.

13 Wheat field under Thunderclouds (completed during the last weeks of his life). Oil on canvas, July 1889.

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