The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles

Vincent van Gogh made a drawing in his hospital room, of the courtyard of Saint-Paul asylum, in Saint-Remy-de-Provence back in 1989. He painted a canvas of the ward he was assigned to depicting his fellow patients in the hall and the courtyard of the hospital.

His artwork is an expression of emotionally compelling images combining pain and suffering with astonishing beauty. The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles art includes the multistoried corridors of the hospital and the corner of the courtyard flowerbeds, fountain, and trees. The trees cut vertically through the gardens with numerous types of flowers of different colors, which include irises, pansies, and poppies. Human figures are seen in the second corridor top right and left, and another single number, with hunched shoulders, is seen walking at the center of the lower corridor.

The people on the upper corridors seem to be looking at the woman at the end of a diagonally walking path. His art is varied from colors all over the spectrum; the hallways are bright yellow arched with lilac, and the walkways are white. In the flowerbeds, red and green are very vibrant, with brown tree trunks and the green row of bushes. There are also orange ochre fish swimming in the pond in the middle of the flower garden.

Vincent's art has attracted the attention of most scholars in different disciplines due to the pictorial space, the three-dimensional geometrical lines of objects in the picture. Also, the emotional significance these paintings have to the artist, and the two-dimensional character marks on the canvas. The form of the art looks intensely real and is connected with Van Gogh's ability to combine his imagination and interpretation of objects. He painted things from visions and aims at modifying the forms of motifs to a pictorial order. He worked from a model where he enlarges objects, rearranges colors, and simplifies various types. Van Gogh got his ideas from nature and made the relevant modifications and simplification of conventional forms.

He mainly depended on canvas, color, and brushwork and he applied paint directly from the tube with a brush to build up a thick texture. Van Gogh spent most of his time in the hospital treating his mental condition, and during this time, painting served as his release. He sought his inspiration in the artwork, mainly in everyday life encounters, and interacted with nature to come up with more exciting landscapes. He is also an inspiration to many; the L'aubergine Rouge developed several rooms inspired by the artist, and a stay in the room feels like one is living in one of Van’s paintings.