Although Vincent had earned the respect of the Paris avant-garde
by the time he left, the pace of city life adversely effected his
delicate psychological condition, and he preferred to work alone
in any case. Leaving Paris and the influence of the Impressionist
and neo-Impressionist avant-garde allowed him to develop his own
singular style of heavy, modeled, rhythmic brushwork and distinctive
color. He believed "the painter of the future will be a
colorist such as has never yet existed" [L 482, May 1888].
His mature style was influenced temporarily by his informal Impressionist
apprenticeship, but it was very different in visual character and
emotional intent.
In Arles, van Gogh returned to (and refined) his previous
favorite subject matter–rural-themed painting after Millet, landscape,
and portraiture, escaping the Impressionist theoretical and methodological
influence that posed the danger of making him "irrevocably dulled"
(L 21 Feb. 1888). Nearly all of the paintings that have become
associated with van Gogh in our culture, the vast majority of his
masterpieces in his mature style, were painted in the compulsively
productive final two and half years of his life, in Arles and then
in the St. Remy asylum and Auvers, where he died. Vincent was taken
with the southern rural charm of Arles, and particularly with the
women, and he began his stay there painting winter landscapes and
still lives. He moved on to the blossoming fruit trees in the spring,
his favorite of which was Flowering Tree, Souvenir of Mauve, dedicated
to his recently deceased friend and cousin. In March, Theo managed
to have his brother's work shown at an important exhibition of
the Artistes Independents in Paris, which was a heartening sign
of real inclusion in the Paris avant-garde. Vincent insisted his
work be registered only under his first name, just as he signed
his canvasses.
In May, Vincent moved into the "little yellow house" in
Arles, where he remained until his move to the St. Remy asylum
in May 1889. He befriended several local residents during his fourteen months
in Arles, some of whom he painted repeatedly, notably The Zouave, the
postman Joseph Roulin and his family (these stunningly rendered
portraits comprise one of his greatest accomplishments in Arles),
the Belgian artist Eugene Boch, and Marie Ginoux (an important
friend during his last few years, immortalized as L'Arlesienne).
His use of extremely bold, seemingly arbitrary color (or color
with spiritual or symbolic significance) catapults these portraits
into a realm of otherworldly splendor and strangeness years ahead
of their time, particularly in the Roulin family paintings and Portrait
of Patience Escalier, a portrait of a local gardener.
Vincent aimed at conveying "something of the eternal... by the
actual radiance and vibration of... coloring" (L 531, Sept. 1888).
He expounded in his increasingly incoherent and rambling letters
his newfound understanding of the historical significance of his
work, regardless of public opinion and lack of sales.
In addition to portraits, Vincent also painted diligent
series of the wheat harvest, and his famous Sunflowers series.
His landscapes were as varied as The Sower and Pavement
Cafe at Night. But he was lonely, yearning for the company
of the other artists that he had enjoyed in Paris. In July, Gauguin
accepted Vincent and Theo's offer to move in with Vincent in Arles
in the hope that they could together spearhead Vincent's dream
of founding an artistic community there. Before Gauguin arrived,
van Gogh had exchanged self- portraits with Gauguin (the unsettling
masterpiece Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, Charles
Laval, and Emile Bernard, and they in turn sent their self-portraits.
By the time Gauguin arrived in October, Vincent had produced some
of his most important portraits and self-portraits, as well as his
interior masterpieces The Bedroom and The
Night Cafe, the latter in Vincent's estimation was "one
of the ugliest pictures I have done... I have tried to express the
terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green" (L 533,
Sept. 1888).
These months allowed Vincent to paint at a near frenzied
pace, until he felt "broke and crazy" (L 513, July 1888). The Arles months
were the most prolific and successful period of his career. However,
the stress and sheer physical and mental exertion of this obsessive
output was too much for his encroaching illnesses, and his condition
gradually worsened reciprocally as his painting became increasingly
facile, formally daring, and accomplished. He voiced sentiments
of regret at the physical and mental disintegration that he believed
were the fault of his obsessive creativity: "The more I am spent,
ill, a broken pitcher, by so much more I am an artist... a kind
of melancholy remains within us when we think that one could have
created life at less cost than creating art" (L 514, July 1888).
Gauguin and Van Gogh worked together fruitfully for two months,
heatedly debating art and exchanging paintings (Vincent painted
symbolic portraits of him and Gauguin as two chairs), but their
friendship became strained after an argument about a Montpellier
museum exhibition of Courbet and Delacroix that they visited together
on December seventeen, 1888. The strain of living with the difficult
and antagonistic Gauguin reached a crisis after a violent argument
on December 23. Vincent suffered a total mental collapse, experiencing
auditory hallucinations and cutting off the lower lobe of his left
ear, possibly during an epileptic seizure while shaving. Gauguin
stayed in a hotel that night, and soon afterwards returned to Paris
with Theo, whom Gauguin had wired to come to Arles immediately.
Vincent was taken to a hospital in Arles after presenting his severed
ear to a prostitute named Rachel at a local brothel as a gift,
requesting that she "keep this object like a treasure"–a last-ditch
attempt at romance after so many failures and rejections.
After returning to the yellow house on January 4, 1889,
Vincent recovered rapidly, spending time with his friend Joseph
Roulin. He apologized to Theo for his behavior, and he began a
series of replica paintings of his own works. In February, he had
another violent hallucinatory breakdown, and returned to the hospital,
where neo-Impressionist Paul Signac visited him. Vincent's "attacks"
became fairly regular after this first major episode, and these
fits of hallucinations, dementia, and seizures only increased in
frequency until his suicide. That spring, he had more minor attacks
and finally volunteered a three- month trial stay at an asylum in
St. Remy, where he believed he could work in peace and recuperate
from the anguish of his breakdowns. In April 1899, Theo married
Johanna Bonger.
