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Hill with the Ruins of Montmajour, 1888
In this extremely bold composition, the ruined abbey is dwarfed by an enormous foreground rock. Van Gogh told Theo he had journeyed to Montmajour 50 times and remained enamoured despite the heat, the fierce mistral wind and the mosquitoes. ‘If a view makes one forget those little vexations, there must be something in it.’
Chalk, ink, pencil on paper
Rijksmuseum. Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt and the Prins Bernhard Fonds