1889 · Saint-Rémy-de-Provence · Knot of Motif

The Hospital Garden

He was shut into a small place, and then he looked at that small place utterly.

F659 The Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital 1889
F660 Trees in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital 1889
F734 The Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital (with figure) 1889

Synaesthetic Precision

The same garden under his brush yields four seasons and four mental states. Spring's garden is hopeful. Summer's garden burns. Autumn's garden is pressed down. He painted less in winter, but mentioned it in letters. He used the garden as a self-thermometer: what colours can I produce today, what direction does my brushwork take today, how much white space remains — each painting is a report on internal weather. Here synaesthetic precision is used as a medical instrument for self-observation.

The Colour Experimenter

"Large pines, tall and unkempt grass, various weeds." The garden he describes is the neglected, untended, wild kind. Inside this wildness he ran colour experiments: pine green against grass green, violet shadow against orange sun, ochre soil against cobalt sky. A neglected garden was a better laboratory than a flower bed — the colours of unmanaged places are more complex, more irregular, harder to handle. The colour experimenter preferred wild places.

Painting

A dozen paintings across four seasons. Three representatives: The Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital — large pines, unkempt grass, a low wall through the middle. Trees in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital — trunks painted like twisted muscles, violet shadows on the ground. The Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital with figure — a small black-clad figure crossing the deep middle of the picture, another patient or the painter himself. The same garden, painted across different seasons and different mental weather, gives back completely different colour systems — spring is fresh green and violet iris, summer is dark green and burning orange, autumn is ochre and black pine.

Letter

1889. "The garden of the asylum is very beautiful — there are magnificent trees." Another: "I see the gardens of the asylum through the iron window of my room." A third: "The garden is planted with large pines beneath which grows tall and unkempt grass, mixed with various weeds." The three sentences map his three positions inside the asylum: distant view (the iron window), entry (allowed out of the ward), close view (sitting under the trees, looking carefully).

Place

Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, a former monastery outside Saint-Rémy. He committed himself voluntarily — no one sent him; he signed the register in his own hand. Dr. Peyron ran it; half the rooms stood empty. Twice a week he was let out as far as the wheat and the olives; the rest of the week the garden was the entire reachable world. He stayed exactly twelve months. He had checked himself in three weeks after the ear, and he would leave seventy days before the end.

Synaesthetic Precision

The Colour Experimenter

before

He committed himself to Saint-Rémy of his own will, knowing his range would be restricted, but feeling this was better than staying in Arles under everyone's watch.

now

The range he could move in was the garden and the nearby fields. He accepted the restriction as a condition, and then began to paint every corner of the garden, painting whatever he saw.

after

He stayed here a year and a week, suffered several attacks, and also painted some of the strongest pictures of his life. He did not explain how those two things could coexist.

Events

1889-05 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 777
'I see the gardens of the asylum through the iron window of my room.' Observation phase one: distant view
1889-05 The Colour Experimenter · Letter 776
'The garden of the asylum is very beautiful — there are magnificent trees.' Observation phase two: granted entry
1889-06 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 784
'The garden is planted with large pines beneath which grows tall and unkempt grass, mixed with various weeds.' Observation phase three: sitting close, looking carefully
1889-07 The Colour Experimenter · Letter 784
Completed The Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital — large pines, tall grass, a low wall through the centre. Colour beginning to load summer's heat
1889-10 The Colour Experimenter · Letter 800
Painted Trees in the Garden of Saint-Paul Hospital in autumn — trunks like twisted muscles, violet shadows on the ground. The same garden, a third colour state
1889-11 Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 800
Using the garden as a self-thermometer — what colour today, which direction the brushwork takes, how much white space remains. Each painting a report on internal weather

From the Letters

Le jardin de l'asile est très beau — il y a des arbres magnifiques.

The garden of the asylum is very beautiful — there are magnificent trees.

Letter 776

Je vois les jardins de l'asile à travers la fenêtre de fer de ma chambre.

I see the gardens of the asylum through the iron window of my room.

Letter 777

Le jardin est planté de grands pins sous lesquels pousse de l'herbe haute et mal soignée, mêlée de diverses mauvaises herbes.

The garden is planted with large pines beneath which grows tall and unkempt grass, mixed with various weeds.

Letter 784

Letter Sources

Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org