Period V

The Spinning World

1889.05 - 1890.05 · Saint-Rémy Body confined. Brushstroke begins to rotate.
Narrative

On 8 May 1889 he entered Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. A bedroom, a studio, a garden, and a wall.

During attacks he could not paint. Between attacks he painted with extraordinary force. The body narrowed; the motion on canvas expanded.

When original invention became impossible, he copied Millet and Delacroix. He called it translation, like one musician playing another’s score.

Technique

Brushstroke · the swirl

  • Serpentine, wave-like and spiral marks
  • Movement turns from directional to organic
  • The vertical cypress becomes an anchor

Impasto · peak

  • Some passages approach relief
  • Chrome yellow, ultramarine and green concentrate
  • Subjects repeat with great intensity

Copying

  • Millet, Delacroix, Rembrandt and Doré
  • Prints translated into oil colour
  • Copying becomes therapy and meditation

Causes

Place The asylum walls narrowed the range of subjects.

Illness Repeated attacks made the intervals of work urgent.

Therapy Copying gave him structure when invention became fragile.

Event Theo’s son was born, and Almond Blossom became a gift.

Representative works · Material Evidence

The Starry Night The Starry Night F612 / JH1731 · 1889.06 The centre of the swirling language, painted from memory indoors. Wheatfield with Cypresses / Wheat fields Wheatfield with Cypresses / Wheat fields 1889-1890 The natural world becomes wave and horizontal field. Almond Blossom Almond Blossom F671 / JH1891 · 1890.02 A gift for his newborn nephew; flat colour returns. Pietà after Delacroix Pietà after Delacroix F630 / JH1775 · 1889.09 A key work from the copying project.

Key letters

letters 800-810 The copying plan unfolds across these letters.

letter 805 · 1889.09 He compares copying to one musician playing another’s music.

Back to the breath line

On the breath line, Saint-Rémy holds confinement and eruption together:

hospital-garden The Hospital Garden → irises Irises → cypresses Cypresses → olive-groves The Olive Groves → starry-night The Starry Night → wheat-fields The Wheat Fields → saint-remy-copies The Saint-Rémy Copies → crisis-before The Night Before the Crisis → almond-blossom Almond Blossom →

The swirls are not myth. They are a physical way to move internal motion onto canvas.