Vincent Van Gogh arrived at the Saint-Paul de Mausolée asylum, out of his own will, from Arles. He was fascinated by the quality of the light and the beauty of the landscapes in Saint-Rémy which really inspired him and his year in the asylum ended up being the most creative of his life, he carried out 143 oil paintings and more than 100 drawings in a mere 53 weeks.
When I visited the hospital in the beginning of October, I found it a really touching and endearing experience. The hospital is still in fact running, but there is a section cut off for tourists where you can go and visit Van Gogh's room and a little exhibition of his time there has thus been set up. It was all so peaceful, quite eary and disconcerting, and looking at the landscape around nothing seems to have changed since the time of Van Gogh's years, you can still recognise the swirly trees in his paintings and the different shades of green in the fields
. Visiting the monastery was really an amazing oppurtunity I would strongly advise anyone to go and see it!
No comments:
Post a Comment