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Room 6: Variations on a Theme
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Aerial view of the Saint-Paul de Mausole hospital in Saint-Rémy with the Alpilles in the background. Postcard. Private collection.
The landscape surrounding Saint-Rémy, with its olive groves and the craggy limestone of the Alpilles mountain range, provided Van Gogh with rich material for creating works in series. Developing ideas he had established in Arles, he fixed on subjects and explored their expressive possibilities through variations. At times, he imaginatively pitched his own work against that produced by Gauguin and Bernard. Van Gogh now often created his work in the studio, a room provided for him at the hospital, which led him to produce some of the most stylised art of his career. He also used the studio to continue creating ‘repetitions’ of existing works and new portraits.