When Remi first made the fateful suggestion that we swing by the town of Arles on our way home from the Visa Pour L’Image Photography Festival in 2003, one name flashed into my mind: Vincent Van Gogh. It was reason enough for me to quickly agree, as I used to regularly visit his masterpieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MOMA in Manhattan (and I still make pilgrimages to say hello whenever I return for a visit). I was only vaguely impressed by the town’s Roman monuments but was immediately transported by the light, his light. It was one of the reasons why we fell in love with this small Provençal town.
Van Gogh only lived in Arles for a year and yet it was the most prolific period of his career. He was as equally inspired by the color found in the landscapes as he was by the city’s seamier underbelly. He was a believer and wished to create an atelier du Midi, an artist’s collective similar to that which Claude Monet had formed in Giverny. After months of insistent demanding, Paul Gaugin joined him and yet it was immediately clear that he was not willing to stay. Their fighting increased until it lead to “the ear incident” where, in a fit of rage and despair, Van Gogh cut off a part of his left ear (most scholars agree that it was a little bit more than the lobe). When Gaugin found him passed out in a pool of blood later that evening, he hired several young men to carry him to the Hôtel Dieu.
During his recovery, thirty townspeople signed a petition against the fou roux or red-headed madman, which lead to the closing of his carefully decorated Yellow House (later bombed by the Americans during World War II). After a brief interval, Van Gogh agreed to leave Arles and enter the Saint-Paul de Mausole hospital, located over the Alpilles hills in St.-Rémy-de-Provence.
He stayed for over a year and created one hundred paintings and as many drawings while there. Initially, his treatment forbade him from leaving the closed gardens…
…and the magnificent 11th century cloister. Unsurprisingly, they became frequent subjects of his pieces…
…as did the view from the series of rooms that his Brother, Theo, had requested.
The first was his bedroom, the second his studio and then an additional room was added in which to stack up his quickly accumulating canvases.
Initially, Vincent felt that his medical treatment was a success and he was eventually allowed to paint in the fields and olive groves outside of the asylum’s walls. Today, there are plaques throughout (as well as in Arles) that indicate the precise spot that had inspired certain scenes.
It is as thrilling as the surrounding lavender garden is calming to the senses. This land has been sacred ground for over one thousand years and that enduring peace is pervasive.
Unfortunately, during the end of his stay, Vincent suffered a severe relapse and after just over one year of treatment, he left the hospital to be closer to Doctor Gachet in Auvers-sur-Oise. His life ended two months later.
By all accounts, Vincent Van Gogh took great solace in nature during his stay. His greatest masterworks were created at St. Paul, including, Starry Night, The Irises and Vincent’s Room in Arles.
This corner of Provence is still largely what it was during his time there and yes, the beauty remains. St. Paul continues on as an active psychiatric hospital. I often see some of their patients out for a guided walk through Arles on a Tuesday.
Inspired by their most famous occupant, the Valetudo Association has been helping the patients of the asylum demystify their illness through the use of art therapy. The site’s boutique offers their work for sale. It is a beautiful link to the past, one creating a positive future and a living piece of the vibrant legacy of Vincent Van Gogh.
Maison de santé Saint-Paul de Mausole
Route des Baux, St.-Rémy-de-Provence
Website in English: please click here.
Site en français: veuillez cliquer ici.
A portion of the site is open to visits from the public and it is well worthwhile.
This seemed like an appropriate post for the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn as well as a fitting follow-up to my previous post. Thank you all for your wonderful comments.
For those in the States, I am wishing you all a wonderful Labor Day weekend.
May it be a peaceful one for us all.
I love the journeys you take us on with your words and gorgeous pictures. Warm regards
Visiting Auvers, where he only spent two months as you said, is also a moving experience.
I did a report on him in the 5th grade!I was fascinated with him……………..
Lovely photos………..
Oh, Good Lord, Heather….I spent this morning going through and over the letters between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh…..and you've just been to St. Paul de Mausole?
I really love that place (which isn't, all done and said, exactly "beautiful" or architecturally interesting, etcetera)….I've been to many "Jane Austen's House" and other, similar literary/artistic shrines, but St. Paul de Mausole (which Herve and I visited three years ago, prior to going over to Vicki Archer's house, of all lovely but unlikely homes for our remarkably un-chic tails to be visiting) is….wonderful….in that "make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up" way…..
It's the only "literary/artistic shrine/tourist spot" that I've ever visited….and found myself suddenly thinking "Oh, My God…he was HERE…I'm in the THE PLACE". As a general rule, I'm firmly unsentimental and uninclined towards idolatry. there, however……. I was genuinely moved (as we say).
St. Paul de Mausol is somehow and indefinably DIFFERENT……but,so was and is Van Gogh.
you can see what I wrote (one hour ago, after working all day on the painting) at: http://www.davidterryart.com/2013/08/watching-you-without-me-barcelona-2013/
For now?…here are the Vincent quotations (from his letters to Theo) that I ferreted out this morning (this is basically what I just posted onto my website; go to the "current offerings site….and, no, I'm not trying to sell the picture. I plan to keep it for myself)……
these quotations are from Vincent:
“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
“What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.”
“Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”
“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.”
Oh, as and as usual?…..here's the necessary song I played repeatedly while painting this….go to ( I was surprised to find this video, created by another Kate Bush fan):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVecjIBwR4Q
Thank you for yet another beautiful posting, Heather. Someday, I'll send you the picture of little, confused me, standing in Van Gogh's bedroom and looking alarmed that NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
Did you know that the room was closed off after Van Gogh's suicide (whatever you choose to believe)….and it wasn't used again until WWI….when Albert Schweitzer, of all people, was detained there for three years as a foreign national?
Strange world with wondrous coincidences, isn't it?…..
David Terry
dt********@*ol.com
http://www.davidterryart.com
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Hi Heather,
The monastery-like "home" became a blessing to Van Gogh to pursue his art and health.
Was it during dream-sleep that he found his vision of colors?
.
Thank you for the clear walking narration and photos.
Enjoy the weekend and its wonders,
edgar
Thank you for the wonderful journey through St Remy de Provence and Arles. It makes me want to go back and see it all over again but longer this time than a week. Beautiful pictures.
Tracing Van Gogh in and near Arles has brought me to so many places I wouldn't have been or wouldn't have seen the same way. Thanks for these wonderful reminders and glorious photos.
But I didn't know that " Inspired by their most famous occupant, the Valetudo Association has been helping the patients of the asylum demystify their illness through the use of art therapy. The site's boutique offers their work for sale." I don't believe that the dead are looking down on us, unless that is one of the circles of hell, but I do imagine that Van Gogh would be pleased to know this.
For me, it's another a reason for a return visit.
Thank you so much. Joan
Your posts are always inspirational, Heather. Thank you for another beautiful tour or your corner of the world. I feel as though I was right at your side. Gorgeous!
That first picture is breathtaking! I love Van Gogh and lavender as well and can't believe I haven't made it to Arles…