Corridor in the AsylumSeptember 1889
A long, vaulted corridor in the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole at Saint-Rémy recedes into the distance, its arches rhythmically repeated. More about this work
About this work
A long, vaulted corridor in the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole at Saint-Rémy recedes into the distance, its arches rhythmically repeated. Van Gogh admitted himself to the asylum in May 1889, and during his year there he painted the building, its garden and the surrounding landscape. Worked in thinned oil paint over black chalk on pink paper, the steep perspective and warm colours make an institutional space feel both luminous and unsettling.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Chalk
- Natural black, red and white chalks. Used together on toned paper they could give the warmth of flesh with very little effort, and they were favourites for studies from life.
- Laid paper
- Handmade on a mould of close-set wires, which leave fine parallel lines you can see when the sheet is held to the light.
Vincent van Gogh
Dutch, 1853–1890 · Born in Zundert; died in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and lay preacher before he turned to art in 1880, at twenty-seven. His early pictures of Dutch peasants are dark and heavy; in Paris from 1886 he met the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, and his palette brightened. In Arles in 1888–89 he painted with intense colour and thick, directional strokes, and he worked on at the asylum in Saint-Rémy and finally at Auvers-sur-Oise. The Poet’s Garden belongs to a group made to decorate Gauguin’s room in the Yellow House.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Post-Impressionism
Artists who kept Impressionism's colour but pushed towards structure, symbol and feeling.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 48.190.2
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Drawings
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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More by Vincent van Gogh
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