Editing Vincent van Gogh (section)

====Saint-Rémy (May 1889&nbsp;– May 1890)====
{{Main|Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (Van Gogh series)}}
[[File:VanGogh-starry night ballance1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt= A landscape in which the starry night sky takes up two-thirds of the picture. In the left foreground a dark pointed cypress tree extends from the bottom to the top of the picture. To the left, village houses and a church with a tall steeple are clustered at the foot of a mountain range. The sky is deep blue. In the upper right is a yellow crescent moon surrounded by a halo of light. There are many bright stars large and small, each surrounded by swirling halos. Across the centre of the sky the Milky Way is represented as a double swirling vortex.|''[[The Starry Night]]'', June 1889. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York]]

Van Gogh entered the [[Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole|Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum]] on 8 May 1889, accompanied by his caregiver, Frédéric Salles, a Protestant clergyman. Saint-Paul was a former monastery in Saint-Rémy, located less than {{convert|30|km|mi}} from Arles, and it was run by a former naval doctor, [[Théophile Peyron]]. Van Gogh had two cells with barred windows, one of which he used as a studio.{{sfnp|Callow|1990|loc=246}} The clinic and [[Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (Van Gogh series)#The garden|its garden]] became the main subjects of his paintings. He made several studies of the hospital's interiors, such as ''Vestibule of the Asylum'' and ''Saint-Rémy (September 1889)'', and its gardens, such as ''[[Lilacs (painting)|Lilacs]]'' (May 1889). Some of his works from this time are characterised by swirls, such as ''[[The Starry Night]]''. He was allowed short supervised walks, during which time he painted [[Cupressus|cypresses]] and olive trees, including ''[[Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above]]'', [[Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)|''Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background 1889'']], ''[[Cypresses (Metropolitan Museum of Art)|Cypresses 1889]]'', ''Cornfield with Cypresses'' (1889), ''Country road in Provence by Night'' (1890). In September 1889, he produced two further versions of ''Bedroom in Arles'' and [[The Gardener (painting)|''The Gardener'']].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1984|loc= 102–103}}

Limited access to life outside the clinic resulted in a shortage of subject matter. Van Gogh instead worked on [[Copies by Vincent van Gogh|interpretations of other artist's paintings]], such as [[Jean-François Millet|Millet]]'s ''[[The Sower (Millet)|The Sower]]'' and ''Noonday Rest'', and variations on his own earlier work. Van Gogh was an admirer of the [[Realism (visual art)|Realism]] of [[Jules Breton]], [[Gustave Courbet]] and Millet,{{sfnp|van Uitert|van Tilborgh|van Heugten|1990|loc=23}} and he compared his copies to a musician's interpreting [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]].{{sfnp|Pickvance|1986|loc= 154–157}}

His ''[[Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré)]]'' (1890) was painted after an [[engraving]] by [[Gustave Doré]] (1832–1883). Tralbaut suggests that the face of the prisoner in the centre of the painting looking towards the viewer is Van Gogh himself;{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 286}} [[Jan Hulsker]] discounts this.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc=434}}

Between February and April 1890, Van Gogh suffered a severe relapse. Depressed and unable to bring himself to write, he was still able to paint and draw a little during this time,{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 440}} and he later wrote to Theo that he had made a few small canvases "from memory&nbsp;... [[Houses at Auvers#"Reminisces of the North"|reminisces of the North]]".{{sfnp|Van Gogh|2009|loc=[http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let863/letter.html letter 863]|ps= . Theo van Gogh to Vincent, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, 29 April 1890.}} Among these was ''Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset''. Hulsker believes that this small group of paintings formed the nucleus of many drawings and study sheets depicting landscapes and figures that Van Gogh worked on during this time. He comments that this short period was the only time that Van Gogh's illness had a significant effect on his work.{{sfnp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 390, 404}} Van Gogh asked his mother and his brother to send him drawings and rough work he had done in the early 1880s so he could work on new paintings from his old sketches.{{sfnp| Rewald|1978|loc= 326–329}} Belonging to this period is ''[[At Eternity's Gate|Sorrowing Old Man ("At Eternity's Gate")]]'', a colour study Hulsker describes as "another unmistakable remembrance of times long past".{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 820}}{{refn|{{harvp|Hulsker|1990|loc= 390, 404}}; {{harvp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 287.}}}} His late paintings show an artist at the height of his abilities, according to the art critic [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], "longing for concision and grace".{{sfnp|Hughes|1990|loc= 144}}

After the birth of his nephew, Van Gogh wrote, "I started right away to make a picture for him, to hang in their bedroom, branches of [[Almond Blossoms|white almond blossom]] against a blue sky."{{sfnp|Tralbaut|1981|loc= 293}}

<gallery widths="165px" heights="165px" class="center">
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 037.jpg|alt=In an indoor prison yard a large group of men walk in a circle, one behind the other. The face of the prisoner in the centre of the painting and looking toward the viewer looks like van Gogh.|''[[Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré)]]'', 1890. Pushkin Museum, Moscow
File:Vincent van Gogh - The Sower - c. 17-28 June 1888.jpg|alt=A man is scattering seeds in a ploughed field. The figure is represented as small and is set in the upper right and walking out of the picture. He carries a bag of seed over one shoulder. The ploughed soil is grey; behind it rises a standing crop and, in the left distance, a farmhouse. In the centre of the horizon is a giant yellow rising sun with emanating yellow rays. A path leads into the picture, and birds are swooping down.|''The Sower'' (after [[Jean-François Millet]]), 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
File:Van Gogh - Zwei grabende Bäuerinnen auf schneebedecktem Feld.jpeg|alt=Two women are digging in a snowy field, covered in white, houses off in the distance, while the sun rises.|''[[Copies by Vincent van Gogh|Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset]]'' (after [[Jean-François Millet]]), 1890. [[Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection]], Zurich, Switzerland
File:Van Gogh - Trauernder alter Mann.jpeg|''[[At Eternity's Gate|Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate')]]'', 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo{{sfnp|Naifeh|Smith|2011|loc= 820}}|alt=A painting of an old man who sits on a chair with his head in his hands.
</gallery>