We have visited various regions of France for our annual holidays for the last eight years and the last three years we spent in Provence at the foot of Mount Ventoux. Mount Ventoux is the highest point in the South of France, approximately 2,000 metres and at the very top is a weather station. It is also famous for at least one of the stages of the Tour de France – the grueling race that Lance Armstrong won 6 consecutive years!
One of the places we visited in September while in Provence was Saint Rémy de Provence. A beautiful village where we enjoyed a first class, leisurely lunch in a much sought after café. In the middle of the village is a church which, while we were there, had a wedding in the morning – the bride looked beautiful – followed by a funeral in the afternoon and an organ recital concert in the evening, which we attended. A well attended church by any record!
Saint Rémy de Provence also has an asylum for patients with mental problems, Saint Paul de Mausole, and it is this hospital that Van Gogh committed himself to in May 1889. When Van Gogh arrived he found the far sighted Doctor Peyron practicing an early form of art therapy. As this vast house was only partly occupied, Van Gogh was able to use one of the rooms as his studio. During this period he produced an astonishing 150 paintings and 100 drawings. Among them are many of his best known works including Starry Night and Cornfield and Cypress Trees. On the first floor is a construction of Van Gogh’s room: His room with a small cot bed and chair is very moving in its simplicity. The view through the barred window (below) is a landscape of olive and cypress trees. It is as it was in his day.
His period of intense creative activity there changed the course of western art. Van Gogh stayed in Saint Paul de Mausole for fifty three weeks. Two months after leaving Saint Rémy he shot himself in the chest and died aged 37.
At the top of this staircase is this tapestry which was made by the patients.
Saint Paul de Mausole continues as a working psychiatric hospital today. It now cares for more than 100 patients and offers them workshops in art therapy, music and painting, in a landscape of staggering beauty. The buildings were extensively restored in 2002, and are now run by the not-for-profit Association et Centre d'Art Valetudo. The hospital is open to visitors, and a permanent exhibition of paintings by patients is displayed in the cloister and renovated Romanesque staircase.
Kara & Sorojini- 21 January 2007
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