Letter 04/30/1889 - by Vincent van Gogh

I am, however, working and have just done two pictures of the asylum: one of a ward, a very long ward, with rows of beds with white curtains and figures of patients moving around. The walls, the large-beamed ceiling all in white, lilac-white or green-white. Here and there a window with a pink or light green curtain. The floor in red bricks. At the far end a door with a crucifix above it. It's very, very simple. Then, as a pendant to it, the inner courtyard. This is an arcaded gallery like those in Arab buildings, whitewashed. In front of the galleries, a very old garden with a pond in the middle and eight flowerbeds with forget-me-nots, Christmas roses, anemones, ranunculus, wallflowers, daisies, etc. And below the gallery, orange trees and oleanders. So it's a picture filled with flowers and spring greenery. But there are three mournful black tree trunks snaking through it, and in the foreground four large, dark bushes of box. Local people probably won't see much in it, yet it's always been my wish to paint for those who know little about the artistic side of a picture.