Struggles with his mental health led Van Gogh to admit himself to the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, located in the Romanesque monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. Throughout his twelve-month confinement, he continued to paint. In addition to the picturesque wheat fields, olive groves, cypresses, roses, and irises in and around the monastery, he captured this interior view of one of the asylum’s corridors. Despite his colorful palette, the sharply receding corridor feels hollow and haunted. Van Gogh sent the drawing to his brother Theo to give him an impression of his new surroundings. His time in the asylum did not afford the cure the artist had hoped for, and he died by suicide shortly thereafter.
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Title:Corridor in the Asylum
Artist:Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
Date:September 1889
Medium:Brush and oils over black chalk on pink laid paper
Dimensions:25 5/8 x 19 5/16in. (65.1 x 49.1cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1948
Object Number:48.190.2
Inscription: [recto in graphite, lower right]: 14; [verso in pen and ink]: no. 14; [verso inscribed in graphite]: Hospice a St Remy
Marking: [watermark]: AL [in banderole] BAS
Theo van Gogh (Dutch)(d. 1891); by inheritance to his son, Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch)(the artist's nephew)as part of his collection, administered by his widow, Johanna van Gogh Bonger, 1891-1927; sold to the Leicester Galleries, London, during Edinburgh exhibtion, 1927; Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. (American), New York, 1929; Bequest of Mrs. J. D. Rockefeller (American)to the Metropolitan Museum of Artwith the stipulation that it be lent to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for fifty years; transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Recent Acquisitions: Bequest of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.," September 14, 1948–November 7, 1948.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," November 30, 1998–February 8, 1999.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Van Gogh: The Drawings," July 1–September 18, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh: The Drawings," October 12–December 31, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Anniversary Highlights," October 8, 2020–January 18, 2021.
Faille 1529; Hulsker 1808; Pickvance 1986, no. 6
Tentoonstelling Vincent van Gogh. 1905, cat. no. 363.
Teekeningen door Vincent van Gogh: uit de verzameling van mevrouw J. van Gogh-Bonger en den heer V. W. van Gogh. 1914, cat. no. 156.
Montross Gallery, New York Vincent Van Gogh.. 1920, cat. no. 7.
Vincent van Gogh Exhibition. 1926, cat. no. 2102.
Exhibition catalogue. 1929, cat. no. 97.
Modern Works of Art. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1934, cat. no. 18, ill.
Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1935, cat. no. 120, ill.
"Painting and Sculpture in The Museum of Modern Art, New York." in Bulletin. Museum of Modern Art, New York, vol. 17, nos. 2-3 (supp.), New York, 1950, fig. no. p. 2, p. 827, ill.
Van Gogh. 1951, cat. no. 19.
Alfred H. Barr Jr. Masters of Modern Art. New York, 1954, p. 27 (color ill, ill.
Exhibition catalogue. 1955, cat. no. 2, 53.
John Rewald Post-Impressionism: from van Gogh to Gauguin. 1st ed. (later eds. 1962, 1978). New York, 1956, p. 325 (color il, ill.
J. B. De La Faille The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. rev. ed of 1928 catalogue raisonné. New York, 1970, cat. no. 1529, ill.
The Symbolist Aesthetic. Ex. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1980-81, cat. no. 23.
Ronald Pickvance Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers. Ex. cat., 25 November 1986-22 March 1987. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, cat. no. 6, fig. no. color ill. p. 91, pp. 88-93, ill.
Christopher Finch Nineteenth-Century Watercolors. Abbeville Press, New York, London, Paris, 1991, fig. no. 362, pp. 274, 276, ill.
Jan Hulsker The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches Revised and Enlarged Edition of the Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Vincent Van Gogh. revised ed. of 1980 catalogue raisonné. Amsterdam, 1996, cat. no. 1808, p. 416, ill.
Colta Ives, Susan Alyson Stein, Sjraar van Heugten, Marije Vellekoop, Marjorie Shelley, Silvia A. Centeno Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005, 353-54,358-59, illus. p. 323, cat. no. 113, fig. no. 264,268, 53,280,296, 322, ill.
Dr. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Heinz Widauer, Sjraar van Heugten, Marije Vellekoop Van Gogh: Heartfelt Lines. Exh. cat., Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Sept. 5-Dec. 8. Cologne, 2008, cat. no. 122, ill.
Louis-Antoine Prat Le Dessin français au XIXe siècle. Somogy Editions d'Art, Paris, 2011, fig. no. 1368, p. 569, ill.
Van Gogh's Bedrooms. Gloria Groom, Chicago, 2016, cat. no. 29, p. 141, ill.
Christopher Lloyd Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawings. Thames and Hudson, London, 2019, pp. 238, ill.
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The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.
