Vincent Van Gogh in Saint Remy de Provence

Tired of Paris and its cold, northern climate, his mental and physical health deteriorating, the painter Vincent Van Gogh moved to Arles in February 1888. Arles is a small town in Provence, where the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh spent 15 months, from February 1888 to May 1889. He shared a house (the yellow house) with fellow artist Paul Gauguin. Although Van Gogh did find some solace in Arles, mental illness eventually reigned ascendant, culminating in his notorious act of self-mutilation. In December 1888 Van Gogh and Gaugin had an argument which resulted in Van Gogh famously amputating his own ear. He was immediately committed to the local hospital, Hôtel Dieu, where he was placed in solitary confinement. The Arles hospital where van Gogh was hospitalized for a short time today is a public university building.

By the time Vincent was discharged less than two weeks after the initial altercation, Gauguin had vacated the yellow house they shared. Tragically, Van Gogh was readmitted to the hospital one month later after another psychotic episode. Upon returning from his second stay, concerned locals filed a petition with the local government to have Vincent institutionalized yet again, claiming he was a danger to society. In this context, Van Gogh returned to the Hôtel Dieu for a third time.

On May 8, 1889, only five months after the fight with Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh left the hospital in Arles and, accompanied by the pastor of this city, Pastor Salles, he went by train to Saint-Rémy, a sleepy village 15 kilometers away from Arles, where he voluntarily committed himself to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum. The 12th century Augustine monks’ monastery was converted to an asylum in the 19th century.

The next day, Doctor Peyron writes the so-called “24-hour” certificate:

I, the undersigned, doctor of medicine, director of the Maison de Santé de Saint-Rémy, certify that Van Gogh Vincent, thirty-six years old, a native of Holland, and currently residing in Arles (B.-du-R. ), being treated in the hospital of this city, was attacked by acute mania, with hallucinations of sight and hearing which led him to mutilate himself by cutting off his ear. Today, he seems to have come to his senses, but he doesn’t feel the strength and the courage to live in freedom and has asked to be admitted to the house himself. I consider, in consequence of all that precedes, that M. Van Gogh is subject to attacks of epilepsy, very distant from each other, and that it is necessary to subject him to prolonged observation in the establishment.

This transcription is taken from: Victor Doiteau, Edgar Leroy, “La folie de Van Gogh” , Paris,

Doctor Théophile Peyron took the position of director and head of the medical service at the asylum on May 1, 1874 and he remained at the head of Saint-Paul until his death on January 19, 1895 He took care of Vincent van Gogh during his stay in the asylum in 1889-1890.

In 1889, there were only forty-two boarders at Saint-Paul – we were far from the maximum of one hundred patients authorized by the prefectural decree of 1855 – and in the men’s division alone, thirty rooms were free. Doctor Peyron was able to assign to the painter two rooms without difficulty, one for sleeping, the other for working. Van Gogh rejoices in them while dreaming of the magnificent exhibition space that could constitute elsewhere, if the you could move the building, the corridors and all those empty rooms.

Van Gogh stayed in the asylum until May 16, 1890. During his stay he was not visited by any of his friends. As for his brother, Theo, he mentioned in his letters to Vincent that his wife was pregnant and he, therefore, could not travel away from Paris.

Regarding Vincent’s illness, Doctor Peyron on May 26, 1898, wrote to Theo van Gogh.

You ask for my opinion regarding the probable cause of his illness. I must tell you that for the time being I will not make any prognosis, but I fear that it may be serious, as I have every reason to believe that the attack which he has had is the result of a state of epilepsy and if this should be confirmed one should be concerned about the future.

Once Vincent had recovered sufficiently at the clinic in Saint-Rémy, he began working again. On his good days, he often painted in the institution’s walled garden and he was later allowed to work outside the hospital too. During his delusional bouts, Vincent could not compose original paintings, resorting instead to copying paintings by the old masters he admired.

Rey and Peyron both thought that van Gogh suffered from epilepsy. Epilepsy is a paroxysmal (sudden and recurring) transient disturbance in brain function manifested by episodic impairment or loss of consciousness, abnormal motor phenomena, psychic, or sensory disturbances, or perturbation of the autonomic nervous system.

In a letter from January 29, 1890, addressed to van Gogh’s brother Theo, Peyron writes:

I am writing to you on behalf of M. Vincent, who is the victim of another attack. M. Vincent was getting on very well and was completely himself when last week he wanted to go to Arles to see some people, and two days after he made the journey the attack took place. At present he is unable to do any work at all and only replies incoherently to any question put to him. I trust that this will pass again as it has done before.

The medical notes of Doctor Peyron reveal that Vincent wanted to poison himself by eating paint and drinking turpentine. That’s probably why he wasn’t allowed into his studio while he was suffering from his attacks.

Despite such relapses, however, Vincent was exceptionally productive at Saint-Rémy, where he completed around 150 paintings in the space of a year. During his year there, he created almost 150 oil paintings and more than 100 drawings, from within and outside the walls of the facility.

As for me, my health is good, and as for the head it will, let’s hope, be a matter of time and patience.

Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, between 31 May and 6 June 1889

Van Gogh spent much of his time in Saint-Rémy on the cusp of sanity. In his letters, he jumps from remarkably lucid accounts of his own mental state to moments of intense irrational horror. Though he made no mention of suicide, Vincent was aware of how badly he needed help: “At present, this horror of life is less strong already and the melancholy less acute,” he wrote to Jo van Gogh-Bonger. “But I have no will, hardly any desires or none at all, and hardly any wish for anything belonging to ordinary life, for instance almost no desire to see my friends, although I keep thinking about them. That is why I have no yet reached the point where I ought to think of leaving here; I should have this depression elsewhere.”

Van Gogh was released on 16 May 1890, a year after his admittance to the asylum, at his own request. The final medical note described Van Gogh as “cured”. He moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, just outside Paris, in northern France, to be closer to Theo. However, after a final burst of creativity, he shot himself while out, painting in the midsummer fields. He died two days later.