12
The Garden of the Asylum with Sawn-Off Tree, 1889
By the autumn of 1889, Van Gogh turned from his initial interpretation of the hospital’s garden as a ‘nest for lovers’ to seeing it as a site of suffering. In this drawing, related to the painted work that hangs alongside (13), Van Gogh attempted to convey this sense of anguish via the intensity of his pen strokes. These capture the dense growth of the pine trees and the rain puddles on the path.
Black chalk, quill and reed pen and brown ink on paper
Private collection