Studio Window, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh

Upon his arrival at the asylum at Saint-Remy Van Gogh threw himself into his paintings with a feverish intensity. He was allocated two rooms, side-by-side, one of which he used as a bedroom and the other as a studio, where he would shut himself in painting to drown out the screams and shouts of the other patients. It seems from correspondence between Van Gogh and Theo that the insanity of those around him did not initially much disturb the artist, and on the contrary, made him feel less abnormal and perhaps almost part of a 'group' - this feeling of belonging being one that had always affected the artist.

Photographs of his rooms at Saint-Remy show stork and grey interiors, but the paintings he made of his 'studio' and the hospital were enlivened with color, here a square of blue sky punctuating the window. His palette had become less pure and brilliant than his time at Arles, but was still vivid, and he was increasing his use of heavy dark outline delineating forms, that still harked back to his love of Japanese woodcuts.