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A monastery
A monastery became an asylum in 1605
Saint-Paul-de-Mausole was a 10th-century Benedictine priory and then an 11th-century Augustinian monastery. In 1605 Franciscan monks established a psychiatric asylum there. Several rooms have been converted into a museum to honour Vincent van Gogh.
May 1889
Van Gogh admitted himself on 8 May 1889
Vincent van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to the asylum on 8 May 1889. It catered to the wealthy and was less than half full, so he was able to occupy both a second-story bedroom and a ground-floor room as a painting studio.
The paintings
He painted the garden and the wheat field he could see from his window
From May 1889 to May 1890 Van Gogh made paintings of the garden, the enclosed wheat field that he could see outside his room, and a few portraits of people at the asylum. During much of his stay he was confined to the grounds. One of the best known works from this period is The Irises.
Painting as solace
When he could paint again, it gave him solace and meaning
During his stay Van Gogh had periods of illness when he could not paint. When he was able to resume, painting provided solace and meaning for him. Nature seemed especially meaningful, trees, the landscape, even caterpillars as a sign of transformation.
Shown
His work from here was shown in September 1889 and January 1890
Starry Night over the Rhone and The Irises were exhibited at the Société des Artistes Indépendants on 3 September 1889. In January 1890 six of his works were shown at the seventh exhibition of Les XX in Brussels.
Day 6, morning
Next is Glanum.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole and the Wikipedia article Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (Van Gogh series), and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.