A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh

A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul was painted by Van Gogh in 1889 when he entered the asylum of St. Paul near Saint-Remy in Provence. Van Gogh was initially confined to the immediate asylum grounds and painted (without the bars) the world he saw from his room. Soon Van Gogh was allowed to paint in the hospital's garden, and by June was able to leave the hospital, accompanied by an attendant (Jean-Francois Poulet) to paint in the surrounding fields. He was particularly taken with the local landscape, which was his subjects over 150 canvases.

There is great rhythm in this painting that is created through these very precise brushstrokes - every stroke of paint here has a function and builds towards the greater surface pattern across the canvas. His forms are very rounded from the stacks of wheat to the mountains, and this sense of 'roundness' and curvature was something that was characteristic of many of his later works. This painting was done in July 1889, which was when he made his first trip back to Arles from the asylum, and subsequently had his first serious breakdown in Saint-Remy.