Painted in October 1889, Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul datesfrom one of the richest and most important periods of Vincent vanGogh's life. The picture is filled with the rhythmic swirls thatlend his greatest paintings their unique energy. The cypressespecially reaches for the sky, a darting series of curlicuesthrusting heavenwards, making all the more dramatic an impressionby its contrast with the lighter, scintillating, ever-shiftingforms of the rest of the landscape. Meanwhile, two trees in theforeground snake their way across the painting like incongruousbars, adding a strange spontaneity to Van Gogh's choice of view,which comes to resemble a snapshot in its unusualcomposition.
It was during his voluntary confinement at the asylum ofSaint-Paul-de-Mausole, in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, that Van Goghcreated some of the greatest of his paintings, especially in thelatter part of 1889. Perhaps surprisingly, many of the masterpiecesdating from this period were painted in the wake of one of hisfits, after which he had been unable to use oils for six weeks. Hisreturn to oil painting in September 1889 after a month and a halfwas characterised by a new-found boldness and enthusiasm. The lifethat pulses through the striations that comprise the forms of Parcde l'hôpital Saint-Paul has an electric vitality to it. Van Goghappears to have tapped into the raw energy of existence itself,creating a shimmering painting that appears to show some underlyingspiritual and organic dimension to nature.
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
Van Gogh had originally gone to Saint-Paul-de-Mausolefollowing a string of debilitating fits in Arles, where he had beenliving with Gauguin. In the most renowned of these attacks, VanGogh had had an altercation with Gauguin and had then cut off partof his own ear and given it to a local prostitute, before beingbeen found later bleeding in bed. The townspeople gradually came topressure the authorities to have the artist confined in hospital,and through the intervention of some of the senior doctors who weresympathetic to him, he was eventually placed in the care of theasylum, which lay some fourteen miles outside Arles, occupying abuilding that had originally been a 12th-century Augustinianmonastery. At certain points during his time in Saint-Rémy, VanGogh had a varying degree of access to the world around him;sometimes he was confined to his rooms, sometimes allowed to wanderthe countryside or even visit Arles. In the wake of his fit inJuly, though, he was confined to the grounds of Saint-Paul itselffor some time. This, to Van Gogh, was no great hardship, as theslightly ramshackle grounds themselves provided endless themes tobe painted. Earlier, he had written to Theo extolling the virtuesof the gardens:
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
'Since I have been here, the deserted garden, planted withlarge pines beneath which the grass grows tall and unkempt andmixed with various weeds, has sufficed for my work, and I have notyet gone outside. However, the country round St. Rémy is verybeautiful and little by little I shall probably widen my field ofendeavour' (Van Gogh, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh,London, 1958, Vol. III, no. 592, p. 173).
He later went into more detail in describing some of theeffects of the light and colour on his surroundings, providing acatalogue of the sights that itself reads in parts as though he isinventorising the visual contents of Parc de l'hôpitalSaint-Paul:
'From time to time there are moments when nature is superb,autumn effects glorious in colour, green skies contrasting withfoliage in yellows, oranges, greens, earth in all the violets,heat-withered grass among which, however, the rains have given alast energy to certain plants, which again start putting forthlittle flowers of violet, pink, blue, yellow. Things that one isquite sad not to be able to reproduce. 'And skies - like our skiesin the North, but the colours of the sunsets and sunrises morevaried and clearer...
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
'I also have two views of the park and the asylum, where thisplace looked very pleasing. I tried to reconstruct the thing as itmight have been, simplifying and accentuating the haughty,unchanging character of the pines and cedar clumps against theblue' (Van Gogh, ibid., no. 610, p. 222).
In his catalogue raisonné of Van Gogh's works, A.M. Hammacherconsidered Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul to be one of the two viewsthat the artist mentioned here (Jan Hulsker considered thisreference to be to two other pictures, F642 and F643, butnonetheless considered the present work to form part of the samegroup of pictures). Meanwhile, de la Faille considered Parc del'hôpital Saint-Paul to have been the latter work to which Van Goghreferred when he wrote describing two pictures: 'I have a study oftwo yellowing poplars against a background of mountains and a viewof the park here, an autumn effect in which the drawing is a littlemore nave and more-home-felt' (Van Gogh, ibid., no. 609, p. 221).Certainly, there is a directness in this painting, a deliberatenavet that adds to its engaging charm. Indeed, in looking at thisintimate landscape, one can well understand the honesty of VanGogh's earlier reassurance to his brother that, 'You will see that,considering my life is spent mostly in the garden, it is not sounhappy' (Van Gogh, ibid., no. 592, p. 174). These grounds providedan endless variety of scenes and sights and visual effects, and itis a reflection of Van Gogh's amazing enthusiasm for rendering theworld around him in oils, as well as a result of his confinement,that he created a range of pictures during this period showing asimilar view as is seen in Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul, sometimeseven showing the same trees and steps. It is perhaps a mark of VanGogh's own appreciation of the success of this particular view thatit can be seen hanging on the wall of his studio in his ownpainting of the window in his room at Saint-Paul.
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
The directness with which Van Gogh channelled the world aroundhim into his pictures was in part inspired by his love of Japaneseart, and indeed in both its spontaneity and its composition, Parcde l'hôpital Saint-Paul appears to owe a great deal to his love ofHiroshige in particular. Van Gogh copied several of Hiroshige'sprints, and here appears to have created a landscape view that,through the use of the barring trees in the foreground, echoesperfectly some of the striking compositions in his Japanesepredecessors woodblock prints. Van Gogh had in fact headed to theSouth of France, to Arles, originally in search of a moreaccessible version of the Japanese landscape. As he had earlierwritten to his brother, justifying the additional expenses ofstaying in Arles: 'About this staying on in the South, even if itis more expensive, consider: we like Japanese painting, we havefelt its influence, all the impressionists have that in common;then why not go to Japan, that is to say the equivalent of Japan,the South?' (Van Gogh, ibid., no. 500, p. 589). He then expandedupon the subject, explaining that it was the manner of execution aswell as the sight of the landscape that interested him in Japaneseart and which he sought to echo in his own unique way:
梵高 圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpitalSaint-Paul 局部
'I wish you could spend some time here, you would feel itafter a while, one's sight changes: you see things with an eye moreJapanese, you feel colour differently. The Japanese draw quickly,very quickly, like a lightning flash, because their nerves arefiner, their feeling simpler.
'I am convinced that I shall set my individuality free simplyby staying on here' (Van Gogh, ibid., no. 500, p. 590).
This, of course, was to become all too true. Van Gogh's rapiddevelopment, in part catalysed by the presence of Gauguin and theintense discussions about art that the pair had, involved histhrusting himself into his paintings with a new reckless abandon.There was something of the medium to Van Gogh's intense views ofthe world around him, and his manic quality is reflected as much inthe frantic and enthusiastic brushwork of Parc de l'hôpitalSaint-Paul as it is in his sheer output during this period. Interms of execution, he has taken a couple of lessons fromNeo-Impressionism and twisted them to his own purposes and needs.The colours have been applied not with the backdrop of logic andcolour theory of Paul Signac, whom he had met earlier in the year,but instead with boldness and passion. That Van Gogh was pushinghimself too far was all too painfully evident to his brother, whowrote even before the July fit had struck celebrating the paintingsbut worrying about the strains of the process of their execution.'Your last pictures have given me much food for thought on thestate of your mind at the time you did them,' Theo wrote:
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
'In all of them there is a vigour in the colours which youhave not achieved before this in itself constitutes a rare qualitybut you have gone further than that, and if there are some who tryto find the symbolic by torturing the form, I find this in many ofyour canvases, namely in the expre*ssion of the epitome of yourthoughts on nature and living creatures, which you feel to be sostrongly inherent in them. But how your brain must have laboured,and how you have risked everything to the very limit, where vertigois inevitable!
'For this reason, my dear brother, when you tell me that youare working again, in which from one point of view I rejoice, forby this you avoid lapsing into the state of mind which many of thepoor wretches who are taken care of in the establishment where youare staying succumb to, it worries me a little to think about it,for you ought not to venture into the mysterious regions which itseems one may skim cautiously but not penetrate with impunitybefore you recover completely. Don't take more trouble thannecessary, for if you do nothing more than simply tell the story ofwhat you see, there will be enough qualities in it to make yourpictures last' (Theo van Gogh, ibid., no. T10, pp. 543-44).
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
This was to become prescient both as a judgement on thelasting legacy of Van Gogh's pictures, and as a presentiment ofwhat was to come in terms of his brother's health. Van Gogh was arational, modern-thinking man, and yet his illness was accompaniedby fits of completely irrational terror, a fact that almostembarrassed him: 'I am astonished that with the modern ideas that Ihave, and being so ardent an admirer of Zola and de Goncourt andcaring for things of art as I do, that I have attacks such as asuperstitious man might have and that I get perverted and frightfulideas about religion such as never came into my head in the North'(Van Gogh, ibid., no. 607, p. 214). Van Gogh's rational mind wasbeing disrupted by his emotional state, and yet it was this curiousintensity of experience and existence that makes paintings such asParc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul such palpable, almost tangible tracesof life and the beauty of nature in all its forms.
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
It was during precisely this period, so shortly prior to hisdeath in Auvers the following year, that Van Gogh was beginning toreceive more and more acclaim within a small group of artists andadmirers. This was the period of his burgeoning fame, the foundingof his immense legacy. While he famously sold almost none of hispaintings during his lifetime, those which he presented as gifts oroffered in exchanges with his friends were highly treasured, forinstance the picture of herrings he had given to Signac earlierthat year. It was in itself a tribute to the respect he inspiredthat Gauguin had made his way from Pont-Aven to Arles. Likewise, hewas also being considered for more exhibitions and even benefitedfrom favourable press in an article written by J.J. Isaäcson thesame year that Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul was painted:
'Who interprets for us in form and colour the mighty life, thegreat life once more becoming aware of itself in this nineteenthcentury? I know of one, a solitary pioneer, he stands alonestruggling in the deep night, his name, Vincent, is for posterity'(J.J. Isaäcson, quoted in J. Hulsker, The New Complete Van Gogh:Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, Amsterdam, 1996, p. 418).
梵高圣保罗医院公园 Parc de l'hôpital Saint-Paul 局部
Van Gogh was embarrassed by this praise, feeling unworthy ofit, stating that Isaäcson should have waited until he had anotheryear's worth of works to show in order to justify such a lavishstatement. However, he was clearly aware of the fact that he was onthe path he had so long sought, and was reconciled to a lack offame or recognition during his own lifetime. This philosophicalperspective is evidenced by his words to Theo from this sameperiod:
'Do you know what I think of pretty often, what I already saidto you some time ago - that even if I did not succeed, all the sameI thought that what I have worked at will be carried on. Notdirectly, but one isn't alone in believing in things that are true.And what does it matter personally then! I feel so strongly that itis the same with people as it is with wheat, if you are not sown inthe earth to germinate there, what does it matter? - in the end youare ground between the millstones to become bread.
'The difference between happiness and unhappiness! Both arenecessary and useful, as well as death or disappearance... it is sorelative-and life is the same.
'Even faced with an illness that breaks me up and frightensme, that belief is unshaken' (Van Gogh, op.cit., 1958, Vol. III,no. 607, p. 218).
Amsterdam, Municipal Museum, The Municipal Museum Exhibition,July - August 1905, no. 207.
New York, Montross Gallery, October 1905, no. 66.
Basel, Kunsthalle, Vincent van Gogh, March - April 1924, no.46.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Vincent van Gogh, 3 July - 10 August 1924,no. 57.
Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, October - November1924, no. 28.
Paris, Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Vincent van Gogh, ExpositionRétrospective, January 1925, no. 36.
The Hague, Pulchri Studio, March - April 1925, no. 26.
Munich, Glaspalast, 1926, no. 2071.
Berlin, Galerie Thannhauser, 8 January - February 1927 (not incatalogue).
Cleveland, Museum of Art, French art since 1800, 1929(illustrated p. 168).
New York, Wildenstein & Co.,The art and life of Vincentvan Gogh, 1943, no.49 (illustrated).
Cleveland, Museum of Art, The work of Vincent van Gogh, 1943,no. 49 (illustrated p. 90).
Cleveland, Museum of Art, Work by Vincent van Gogh, 1948, no.23 (illustrated pl. XXIV).
Columbus, Gallery of Fine Arts, Masterpieces of Painting,1950, no. 37.
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Van Gogh, 1955, no. 52(illustrated p. 60).
New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Pictures collected byYale alumni, 1956, no. 99 (illustrated).
Los Angeles, Municipal Art Gallery, Vincent van Gogh, 1957,no. 17 (illustrated p. 31).
London, Wildenstein & Co., The French Impressionists andsome of their Contemporaries, April - May 1963, no. 71(illustrated).
Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Van Gogh, June - November2000, no. 79.
J.-B. de la Faille, L'oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh, catalogueraisonné, vol. II, Paris and Bruxelles, 1928, no. 640(illustrated).
W. Scherjon & J. de Gruyter, Vincent van Gogh's GreatPeriod, Amsterdam, 1937, p. 340, no. 152 (illustrated).
J.-B. de la Faille, Vincent van Gogh, Paris, 1938, p. 442, no.642 (illustrated).
P. Lecaldano, L'opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh e i suoinessi grafici, vol. II, Milan, 1966, no. 727 (illustrated p.223).
J. Hulsker, The Complete Van Gogh, Paintings, Drawings,Sketches, 1980, p. 415, no. 1800 (illustrated, titled 'Trees in theGarden of Asylum').
Bulletin of the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Fall 1950, p.35 (illustrated).
I. F. Walther & R. Metzger, Vincent Van Gogh, SämtlicheGemälde, vol. II, Cologne, 1989, p. 559 (illustrated).
